Journey to Darkness
by Cindrollic
Summary: After a series of grueling, life altering events, a boy must cross over to the Dark Side to save a loved one. Or be consumed trying. In this story, the young Jedi's actions, right and wrong, will set up important events to come.
1. The Begining

The quiet wisps of wind passed through the grass blades still wet with morning mist. In the far distance, a creature's early howls echoed as Dantooine's burning orange sun slowly came up over the hills, illuminating the plains with its warm touch. And Ben was there to watch it all, perched on a small hill with his legs crossed. A slight breeze caught his dark brown hair that hung loosely and ruffled the tan cloth of his robes.

This had become almost a routine for Ben, sitting in this spot and watching the sun. The rising ball of fire consuming his vision and attention. . .

Until, in a flash, he was in a speeder. _Smoke poured out from its front, but he could not see the flames from where he was seated in the back. There was no roof to speak of in the small transport, leaving him open to the harsh smoke and forcing him to try and cough it out of his lungs. In the front were two other people, a woman dressed in black, the other a man in normal civilian clothes that could blend easily into a crowd. The woman's long, blond hair flapped wildly about among the smoke, but couldn't get a good enough look at the man. _

"_Pull up!!" The woman screamed, pointing forward._

"_I can't!" A soft, yet hard-edge voice replied. The woman seemed to unbuckle her safety belt and throw herself into the back, arms spread wide—_

And then, he was back. Ben's head rested sideways on the grass, with the rest of his body. Sweat beaded down his face, tickling his warm cheeks and forehead.

He sat himself up, brushing the moist hair from his eyes to find the sun had almost fully risen. Ben sighed aloud. The Jedi Council had told him these visions were a gift, but he only saw them as an unnecessary burden. It started a few years ago, in the middle of the night, and he had went running to his master, Niana Gallai. Now, he didn't bother to wake anyone up. And lately, it had just been the same one, over and over again. The only silver lining was this; the few hours he got to spend alone almost each morning, watching the rest of the planet awaken and loosing himself in needless thought.

But it seemed that even that had to end prematurely.

Ben sensed Gallai's presence a few seconds before she approached, hearing the grass crunch under her boot. "Padawan," The female Bothan said, her voice rich and soothing, even in the morning. "I'm sorry to disturb your meditations—"

"I'm just watching the sun rise, master." Ben cut her off, getting to his feet. He wasn't the tallest young man, and stood eye-to-eye with her. Her raven hair was wrapped in a tight braid slung behind her head, leaving her ears to be the only thing sticking out. Her body was covered with a long, almost robe-like light brown dress. On her belt hung two identical lightsaber hilts.

"Then I'm sorry to disturb your 'watching'," She said, a mild hint of sarcasm in her voice. "But we've been assigned another mission. We leave immediately."

Ben had to suppress his anger before it could show. It didn't help. "But we just got _back_ from a mission last night. _Late_ last night."

"I know, Ben." She reached out and touched his shoulder as he began to turn away. Gallai was normally a tight-knit teacher, but she did know when to let the armor drop. "But everyone is on double duty; we can't be excluded just because of being a little ship-lagged."

He almost pushed the argument, but didn't, instead slumping his shoulders in defeat. "I suppose it's nice to know I'm not alone." Ben commented as they made their way back to the Enclave.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * ** * * * * * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * * * ** * * * * ** * * * * * *

The courtyard that acted as one of the hangers was a wide space, with nothing but a small repair shop in the corner and a few floating security and maintenance droids floating around. Other then that, it was a ghost town. In the center of it saw the _Burning Phoenix_, it's almost perfect oval shape obscured only by the two wings that came out from its top and bottom upon flight. The cockpit viewport was dead-center in the middle of the craft, though it had not other floors, just small pockets of space.

Ben picked it up during their mission to Ord Mantell, at first simply needing a ship unaffiliated with either Jedi or Sith, but over their few months there, fell in love with it. He added a few modifications here and there, a couple his master would probably look down at him about, if he had told her about them.

He reached into his pockets and pulled out a small remote. He pressed the second-largest button on the left, and the entrance ramp rose down, touching the ground a second before they got there.

"Good girl," Ben muttered affectionately, patting the inside of its hall as he reached the top. Behind him, Gallai rolled her eyes.

The cockpit had been built with only one seat when they got it, but Ben had another installed beside his, a pointless gesture he later learned. Gallai never sat in it, instead taking a liking to standing behind it with her arms crossed.

His hands danced across the console that spread out from one side of the cockpit to the other, the engines coming to life and with the control yoke in his control, carefully guided them up and out the hanger and up into the atmosphere. As he did, Gallai filled him in on the details of the mission. The Bounty Hunter's Guild had recently taken out a contract with the Sith Empire, giving out bounties for Jedi. The Jedi Council wants them to go to their main base stationed on the planet Taren and negotiate a treaty with them to stop the contract.

"Do we have a plan?" He asked, focusing on his instruments.

"The Force will guide us, I'm sure." Gallai answered behind him.

"So that's a no."

They broke through the gravitational field, and smiling to himself, Ben pulled the lever connected to the hyperdrive back, causing the stars to pull back, and then jump into them. He only hoped his master was right.

* * ** * * ** * ** *** * ** ** * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The planet of Taren was a rocky landscape, consisting mainly of mountains and mesas nit closely together. A few clearing existed, though there weren't more then four. And in one of them, housed a Sith base. Constructed completely from steel, one felt the chilling draft seep through the walls, especially during the winter. The doors parted and two men strode into the massive main hanger.

Both were bald, with both an age and height difference. The taller of the two had two long, diagonal scars on his hard cut face, the first starting at his left temple and end at his chin, while the other along his right stopped at the bridge of his nose, forming and incomplete X. His dark skin-tight suite revealed his large forearms, as it did his accomplice, he didn't cover most of it up with armor plating. Elongated Lightsaber hilts swayed from both their belts.

"This base is not up to battle like the others in this quadrant are." Darth Bandon pointed out, glancing around. When he received no response, he turned his head to the other. "Viperas?"

That got his attention. "I'll take it under advisement." He said bitterly. He hated it when people addressed him by his real name, simply preferring "Viper".

"Good," Bandon conceded with a grin, raising the hair of his goatee. "Otherwise, it's in perfect operation."

"You could burn it to the ground, for all I care." Viper told him, almost snarling.

"I will, but first need a good reason."

He had a hell of a good reason. Viper knew he should be out _there_, fighting on the frontlines of this war, not stationed on some pathetic backwater planet tasked with watching a group of children with toy blasters who believed themselves Bounty Hunters. His stomach churned just thinking about it. They made it across the hanger to a pair of fighters sitting in standby-mode near the large closed hanger doors.

"Don't hit the mountain's on your way out." Viper said behind clenched teeth.

Bandon gestured at the other fighter. "I'm sure we won't."

Growling, Viper reluctantly followed the Dark Lord's apprentice's lead, jumping into the open cockpit and shutting the canopy and starting up the pre-flight check. And after only a couple of minutes, they were off, streaking through the hanger doors one after the other just as they parted and up toward the sky past the

mountains.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ben walked down the hall from the cockpit, tousling the liquid out of his hair from his quick shower. He had put his robes in the cleaner next to the 'fresher, hoping to get the grass stains out. He went into the cockpit, now dressed in simple white trousers, shirt that came around in the front, and an under tunic, though still kept his belt with lightsaber on the clip.

There was nobody there, until he looked down and found Gallai sitting behind the chair he had installed with her legs crossed, head down and eyes closed.

Glancing at the console and finding everything okay, Ben squatted down beside his master. She seemed peaceful, almost asleep, but something caught his eye. A small glimmer of light bounced off the end of one of the lightsabers resting on her lap. Looking to his left, then his right, Ben reached at it slowly. . .

But just as his finger touched the cold metal, the hilt flew off the belt and levitated over Gallai's head, pointed downward at him. A green-white blade jumped from the hilt, its tip stopping short of Ben's neck. He jerked back, raising his arms up with open hands.

"You need to quiet you're breathing and conceal your presence better." Gallai instructed dryly, eyes still closed. The lightsaber shut down and fell into Gallai's waiting hand, allowing Ben to release his held breath.

Suddenly, the console chirped a mild warning. Getting to his feet, Ben plopped into his chair and deactivated the warning. Then pulled the lever to his left back and brought them out of hyperspace. As the planet consumed the viewport, Ben began to wonder if his clothes would be finished before they landed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Space was vast, and Bandon's and Viper's fighters were like amebas blending into back round of stars. The air from life support in his fighter was stale, making Viper cringe as he tasted it in his mouth. Once they broke through the atmosphere, Viper stopped his fighter cold. "That's far enough." He said, opening the comn channel.

Bandon's fighter slowed, eventually coming to a full stop. "Really?" The other man replied through the comnlink.

"Now go, before I vape you out of the sky, kid." Viper warned.

The other's fighter swung around. "Is that so?"

"Yeah." His danger sense beginning to tingle, Viper activated his weapons systems and trained the two laser cannons on the other. Bandon followed in suite.

They sat in empty gravity, primed on each other with itchy trigger-fingers on the firing button. They could see the other through their cockpit viewports, rarely even blinking. The tension between them was thick enough to withstand a lightsaber. Twice. But it was finally broken when Bandon looked down at his console.

"I win." Viper announced with a slight grin before Bandon could fumble with an excuse. He got little to no response from the younger man, him focusing on his instruments. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but I think something's coming out of hyperspace. Starboard side."

Both turned, and at that moment, a small speck off in the distance appeared from nowhere, flying in-between the stars toward Taren. Viper was already at work, activating the long range scanner and identification probe he had built into his fighter.

"It's not Republic," He said, watching the screen. "not us, and bears no allegiance to the Guild. Registration codes come up empty. So, what _is_ it?"

"How about we find out?" Suddenly, Bandon fired two shots, and then went soaring toward it. Viper figured it out and followed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * *

The warning sounds returned to the console, jumping Ben out of his trance with the instruments. He shut down the whining noise and turned on the long-range scanners to see what was wrong.

"Sith fighters," Ben said, trying to keep the creeping fear out of his words.

Gallai was behind him in a second, though how she did from sitting on the floor, he did not know. "How many?"

"Just two. Wait . . . I think their comn's are open." He activated their transmission system, syncing it with the fighters and leaning up to their small, flexible microphone. Ben was a hair's breath from speaking, before Gallai put her hand on his shoulder, silencing him and leaning back to let her get the microphone.

"Sith fighters, this is Niana of the vessel, _Burning Phoenix_. What is you're present—" She was cut off by something slamming into the side of their side, rocking the entire cockpit.

"We're hit!" Ben exclaimed, activating thrusters and trying to get them out of firing range.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"They're running," Viper said, watching as the unidentifiable ship soared away from them and closer to Taren.

"Then we'll chase them." He heard Bandon say over the comn, pursuing them. Viper followed closely, staying side-by-side with his fighter.

The two began pounding the ship with laser fire, blasting and passing by it, hitting anything that looked important. Viper did his share, though unlike Bandon kept his only two concussion missiles in reserve, just in case. Smoke and flame soon began pouring out of certain areas, forcing the two to dodge the clouds of smoke, though did it with a satisfied grin.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ben's close was an almost choreographed dance of flashing lights and warning sirens. Everywhere he looked, it said 'critical mass achieved' and 'warning, disengage and flee to the escape pods', except for one screen. Which said simply: You are encouraged to activate shields.

He almost slapped himself. But there was a design flaw of the vessel, in which the shield controls were not on the actual console, but on the wall behind him.

"We need shields, master!" Ben said, gripping the control yoke with sweaty palms in an attempt to keep them from spiraling out of control and become sitting ducks. To her credit, Gallai was there in two heartbeats, and her jaw almost fell from the array of dozen upon dozen of small buttons, switches, and view-screens.

The ship harshly jerked again, almost throwing off her footing. "Come on!!" Ben screamed over the wails and cries of the computer. Swallowing hard, he reached up and pressed one of the few green buttons in the center, and hoped for the best.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Great," Viper murmured, watching as a blue and violet veil of energy fell around the craft, quickly forming a dome. "they have shields."

"Not a problem," Bandon said, pushing his fighter closer.

What got Viper was that he was not attacking, only gliding just beyond the shield, encircling it a few times before pulled his fighter back, and falling behind Viper. "Be ready." he warned.

Suddenly, twin missiles streaked past Viper, leaving a bright sapphire trail. He inspected them to explode upon contact with the shields, but they didn't. Instead they went _into_ it, digging their way through the veil and into the dome. The first one hit the dish from where the shields resonated, the seconds into the guiding wing on the top of the vessel.

The shield dissipated in a flicker, while the wing on top was ripped off from the bottom, falling in-between them as it passed. Viper's question of why Bandon wanted nobody to touch his fighter had just been answered.

Grinning, he switched his weapons control to his missiles, launching them both at the doomed craft. They collided with the back thrusters and engines, destroying most of it in a ball of flame.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ben clenched his teeth, watching through the shaking viewport as the terrain of Taren came slowly closer and closer. No response from either engines or the guiding wing, meaning he had no way to slow down, or even steer his ship. Even knowing that, he still tried, and failed. The control yoke was locked in place.

There was no choice left. He whipped around to tell his master to get to the escape pod, but stopped himself, seeing her on her knee's, head down and eyes closed with her forehead wrinkled in concentration. He felt the ship start to balance out under him, and taking in a deep breath, returned his attention to the console. _She'll do what she can do, and so will I_.

But she didn't know the ship like he did. Reaching out with his awareness, Ben quickly found the reverse gravitational thrusters, though his screen had told him it was destroyed with everything else. In his mind's eye, he saw it _was_ damaged, but not useless. Ben began the manual activation. . .

--But it was too late.

The _Burning Phoenix_ collided with the edge of a mountain, sending it into a downward spiral, spinning viciously. Ben clung to his seat, eyes shut and trying his best to fight the dying urge to vomit. Finally he snapped his eyes open, looking back at Gallai somehow actually standing in the middle of the cockpit, bracing herself against nothing. But before he could call to her, the ship came apart in a thunderous jerk, and Ben watched in horror as it came undone at the entrance of the cockpit, taking Gallia with it in a half-second.

He tried to scream, but after one final impact, Ben was tossed, and everything went black.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Looming in the blackness of space, Viper and Bandon watched through their viewports as the vessel streaked away from them and into the planet's gravitational pull, leaving a long trail of dark smoke behind it.

"Find them," Bandon ordered before a breath of relief could be released. "Take what you can and burry the remains."

"What about _you_?" Viper asked, annoyance creeping into his words.

"I must report to my master." And with that, Bandon's fighter turned and moments later, disappeared into hyperspace.

"Good riddance." Viper muttered, returning back to base.


	2. Mission Failed

Ben's eyes opened slowly, taking in the harsh light that poked through the large gaps of the cockpit. Stale, dusty air filled his lungs, and despite his coughing, could not free his mouth of the putrid taste. The cockpit had been reduced to a heap of burnt, twisted metal, with exposed wires and shattered glass for as far as the eye could see from in the small space for ones legs under the console. And being upside down didn't help, either. Once Ben did work up the energy to get up, intense waves of sharp pain shot through his left leg, and he was under the console again.

He pushed a small sheet of metal off to find the legs wrapped in electrical from the knee down, with their exposed tips digging into the skin. Setting his teeth firmly, Ben pulled each out, grimacing at the smell of burnt meat.

After a few minutes, he was free and making his way to the exit. But as he crawled up to the torn out hole, Ben found his lightsaber stuck inside one of the destroyed screens, its pommel stick prominently out. He plucked it out and got up to the hole with it in hand

The _Burning Phoenix_ was in half a dozen different pieces scattered about the large clearing they were in. It seemed that no two large chunks could be even remotely close to each other. And among the smaller bits was a body, lying on the ground . . . motionless.

"Master!" He tried screaming out, but only coming through as an exhausted whimper. Falling to the ground and ignoring the radiating pain from his leg, Ben ran to Gallai as fast as he could.

Her clothes were tattered and ripped in some places. Small cuts were all over her body, and she had a large, purple-ish bump on her right temple. When he called out to her, there was no response. Ben heart began racing faster. He looked around at the wreckage, hoping for _something_ to be out here that would help them, but there wasn't.

Clipping his lightsaber to her belt, Ben dragged Gallai to under a long sheet of metal embedded in the ground, twisting horizontally. The least he could do was gave her shade from this horrendous sun.

Ben scanned the area again, though wondered why he bothered. He stopped at the very back of the ship as it pushed up against the bottom of a mountain. Suddenly, it flashed through his mind; next to the refresher and laundry unit, was their survival med-kit.

Filled with new, hopeful energy, Ben made his way to the foot of the mountain in just under twenty minutes, glancing back several times at Gallai. It took him a couple more minutes to find a hole to get in from, since the actual entrance was buried in the ground, but he did find a small gap in the engine room he could squeeze through. Slowly but surely, he got to the room from there.

It was a terrible mess. The machine and 'fresher were destroyed far beyond repair, their insides and components scattered on the floor and stuck in the walls. But Ben did find his robes in the right-hand corner, and the left-hand corner, and a little bit in the ceiling.

After rooting through some of it, Ben found the med-kit, its plasteel case shattered in three different spots. His hopeful energy almost died there, until he found a small syringe of anti-bacterial at his feet. Ben looked and realized that the ground was littered with different medical supplies, some were broken, yes, but most looked at least serviceable. He went to work, gathering as much as he could in his arms, but it wouldn't be enough. Ben grabbed a light panel off the ground and heaved it across the room, and was surprised to find his cloak under it, intact for the most part.

Using it as a make-shift bag, Ben found all he was going to find, then tying it together at the ends, made his way out of the ship and back to Gallai.

Her head wound was getting worse, and every time Ben glanced at one of the broken ship pieces, two words rang through his mind; _death trap_. Then, a small indent at the foot of a mountain north of them caught his eye. Taking the bag in one hand and leaning Gallai against him with the other, he began his trek across the clearing.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * *

Constantly having to shift his weight as Gallai fell in and out of consciousness, it took Ben a total of forty minutes to reach the cave, and a few more to get inside. It was a refreshing change from the boiling sun. Using the yellow glow off his lightsaber, Ben gently leaned Gallai down against cool rock, then untied his cloak and spread out its contents. With the pain returning, he quickly took one of the syringes filled with numbing application and jammed it into his shin, injecting the blue liquid within. His mind now free of the burden of pain, he went to work.

But Ben's knowledge medicine was minimal, as was their supplies. In the end, all he could do was disinfect the wounds, clean up the cuts, and apply the last of the numbing application before it finally ran out.

He fell to the ground, bracing himself against the opposite wall as he stared at his unstable work, on the verge of tears.

"Ben. . ." If they weren't in an echoing cave, Ben doubted he would have ever heard the faint whisper.

He approached slowly, bringing his lightsaber closer and seeing that Gallai's eyes were open, though barely. Her hand twitched, and Ben realized she was reaching for something. The hand, covered in bandage wrap, reached into her pocket and slowly pulled out a small gold chip.

"Take this," She said softly, pushing the credit-chip into his hand. "Go . . . get transport . . . get us home."

Ben swallowed. "But you need medical attention, we still have to finish the mission—"

"The mission's over, Ben." Gallai cut him off. "We've failed."

After a moment, he shook his head. She was right. There was no recovering from this, not right now, anyway. As he pocketed the chip, she grabbed the tails of his cloak, brining it up to him and rolling the empty syringes and used bandages off. Ben stood, shutting down his saber and threw his arms into the sleeves of the cloak.

"I'll be back soon, I promise." Ben said before turning and heading back toward the light at the end of the cave.


	3. Battle and a Revelation

Stepping out from the cave, Ben had to shield his eyes from the blinding sun with his cloak's sleeve. It now hung dead center in the clear blue sky, making him wonder how long he had been in the cave. He jumped suddenly as a crimson bold of energy as large as he was shot beside him. Ben ducked and rolled to the side, snatching his lightsaber from his belt and igniting the yellow blade with a loud _Snap-Hiss_.

A ship loomed above, putting the sun behind it and making Ben squint to see its outline. The block-like main hull looked almost like brick, with repulser's both under it and on its sides. The cockpit stood out only a little but, connected to the hull by a small, thin hallway, like an animal's neck. And among the repulser's on the bottom, was a guard turret, firing right at him.

Calling on the Force, Ben sprinted away from the cave, knowing his weapon would do little against the cannon. More bolts came, following him and hitting the dirt just centimeters from his feet, often shooting through the dust he kicked up. Though his view was shaking, he still reached the nearest piece of the _Burning Phoenix's_ debris, the cockpit, in under a minute, jumping clear of it and crouching behind a sheet of twisted metal.

The ground beneath him rumbled, though not as much as Ben knew it should have. Peering over carefully, he saw that through the broken glass, the ship had only now begun to swing around. Taking in a quick breath, Ben gathered his strength within the Force, absorbing it into his body as the ground shook more viciously with each passing second. Then, when he knew it would be right on top of him, he released his held energy, leaping straight up.

Ben almost could have kissed the tip of the ship, it was so close. The turret was already spinning around to him with smoke still pouring out the barrel. Gripping the hilt in his hand, Ben reached out and chucked his lightsaber.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** **

They say navigating through mountains was hard, even borderline impossible, but you just needed a feel for it. And having a slow ship helped, too. Kane gently moved the control yoke to the right, making the _Crimson Raider_ make a less-then-graceful turn. The ship buckled as its rear grazed the side of a mesa. Kane's eyes went immediately to the layout screen, and breathed a sigh of relief after seeing there was no breach in the rusty hull. He shook his head, only to realize there was no sweat and that his dark blue hair was bundled neatly under a helmet and his eyes were protected by red-tinted goggles. He was in the middle of speeder practice, when someone had told him that a ship had fallen out of the sky. He didn't even have time to change out of his jumpsuit.

Behind him, a young woman squeezed herself through the thin hallway and walked into the cramped cockpit. Her viridian suite was skin-tight, exposing her curves. The personalized blaster he gave her last year was holstered on her belt, with a smaller, hold-out blaster strapped to her shin. An ordinary tan vest hung around her shoulders, so plain that nobody would expect that it could take a full salvo of missiles and then some. Her raven hair was pulled back, fully revealing the features of her soft, beautiful face. Her sapphire eyes could bring warmth to your heart, or knifes to your soul.

"Do you mind going a little faster, or should I just get out and walk and meet you there?" Lexi asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"_You're_ the one who won't let me get rid of this thing."

She walked up behind his chair and slapped the back of Kane's head softly. And then leaned in closer to him, putting herself on the side of his head. "We've had this tub for almost eight years now—"

"Exactly," Kane cut her off. "_eight years_."

"—and so long as we live and breathe, we'll have it for _another_ eight years. So deal with it."

Kane took his eyes off the viewport and stared at her, cheek twitching and opening his mouth to retort, but stopped, the submitted with a sigh.

"Fine." Kane conceded, leaning forward and brushing his lips against her cheeks. She grinned, and then stood. Kane pushed the engines forward, brining a warning light to flash on the console. But they did make it to the clearing in half the time.

He reached out and grasped a short ear-piece between his index and middle finger, lifting it up. "Get on the guns," Kane said as Lexi took the piece and put it in her left ear, and walked out of the cockpit toward the back.

Kane slowed the _Crimson Raider_, activating the short range sensors and brining up a magnified visual on a small screen on his console. Then squeezed a small ear-piece into his lobe.

Scattered across the field were large broken off chunks and torn pieces of ship, twisted, turned-over, and some just stuck in the ground. Glass, parts, and wires were everywhere, sometimes filling the gaps between chunks. Kane turned and had to smack the screen to get it to come back on and show a negative on the life-signatures readout. Until they got a little closer. Then a small, green blip appeared on the far edge of the screen. Raising an eyebrow, Kane shut down the sensor's and brought up the magnified view, brining it up to where the blip was.

A being, obscured mostly by a ragged brown cloak walked out from the entrance of a cave, and raised an arm before he could see the sentients face. But something caught Kane's eye. He toggled the controls and zoomed in closer, finding a metal cylinder on his belt.

"Jedi," Kane said, not realizing the word had left his mouth. He pushed the small switch on the ear piece in. "You seeing this?"

"Yeah," Lexi replied through the device. "What do you want to do?"

"Fire a warning shot."

Kane watched the screen as a crimson bolt screeched next to the Jedi. He ducked and rolled, and suddenly a brilliant yellow energy blade appeared. Then, the Jedi bolted out of the screens sight.

"We've got a runner."

"Great." Kane murmured, jerking the control yoke to the left. Slowly, the terrain in the viewport began to turn.

"Would you hurry it up?!" Lexi shouted, not even needed the ear piece. Kane tried to ignore her, swearing under his breath. Despite his best efforts, the _Crimson Raider_ still refused to turn around any faster.

But once it did get around, the hull shuttered slightly and after hearing a quick surprised yelp from Lexi and seeing a small bright red warning light begin to flicker on his console, Kane's eyes went to his ship's layout panel. Something seemed off. He then recognized that it was the lack of the bottom cannon. Hell, the whole section was black, like it had been cut off. . .

"Alright, now it's personal." He heard Lexi say through his ear piece. Before he could speak though, a tight, mechanical squeal came from the back, followed by the wisp of continually passing of pressurized air, drowning out all sound. Baffled, Kane turned back to his console to find a message asking if 'he was aware that the exit ramp was extended during flight'. His eyes shot open as his hands danced across the console, activating the automated landing program. It didn't respond, at first. Then after slamming his fist into the cool steel of the console, he got the green light and heard the rickety old ship begin to strain was the landing gears extended out.

Kane charged down the hall and turned, finding the ramp was down and Lexi was gone. Her firing console next to the ramp was dead, with sparks flying from its keyboard. Grabbing the vibro-sword strung up against the wall and noting Lexi's was gone, Kane leapt through the open hole.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ben hit the dirt on his side, making himself roll to prevent bouncing and avoid further pain. He whipped his head up in time to catch the turret hitting the ground with sparks shooting from the cut-point. Unfortunately, his lightsaber was nowhere to be seen.

The ship was buckled somewhat, but soon caught itself in time for its exit ramp to extend and a woman, armed with a sword, leapt down, landing only feet from him. Her raven hair flapped wildly as did the flaps of Ben's cloak, a minor wind created from the repulser's.

Her sapphire eyes were grin, matching her expression seamlessly. Ben took a quick glance around, hoping to find a quiet hint of where his weapon was. But he wasn't that lucky, and he knew it. His heart began pounding as she slowly approached, one step at a time with sword held tightly.

His lack of energy and barely medicated leg suddenly began to sink in. His head was throbbing horribly, from the high-pitched whine from the ship. _Stop it,_ he scolded himself. _You can either stand here and complain, or fight back. _Forcing through the pain, Ben focused his thoughts on the woman just when she threw herself at him. He snapped his eyes shut, and with an exhausted push, sent her soaring away in mid-air, slamming her into a piece of the _Burning Phoenix's_ debris. She hit the ground in a daze, dropping her weapon and holding her swaying head.

Ben opened his eyes and a faint smile touched his lips. Until another being, possibly male, leapt down from the ship, which Ben had only now noticed was slowly descending down with the landing gears out. His boots crunched in the dirt, and now it was Ben's head that swayed. He saw two men stomping toward him, encircling each other in his vision. Setting his teeth firmly together, Ben saw through the fatigue, getting most of his normal vision back.

"You hurt my girl," The man growled, throwing his helmet off and tugging at his goggles with his free hand. "wreck my ship, and waste our time." Ben's legs shook, with nothing near him to brace himself with. His hand clenched into a loose fist. "Well, forget the _rules_," The man tossed his goggles away, then reached out and grasped Ben's collar, pulling him closer and raising his sword high. "You die."

He swung his sword down in a downward arc, stopping just a hair's breath from the Padawan's neck. His cloak's hood fell, and Ben was shocked to find himself staring at his own face.


	4. The Past Revealed

Under Taren's boiling sun, the two stood, staring at each other. A thousand questions spilled into Ben's mind. How could this be possible? _Was_ this possible? The other man released his hold on Ben's collar, and even with the Force at his side, Ben couldn't get a read on him, or see past his emotionless expression. They heard a series of footsteps, and turned to find that woman charging at Ben, sword raised. Small streams of blood trickled through the furrowed wrinkles of the concentration, or anger, in her forehead.

But once they were both turned, she stopped in her tracks, dropping her sword and doing nothing to hide her surprise. She switched her gaze back and forth between Ben and the other man, like she was waiting for the answer to the obvious unasked question.

Finally, Ben broke the silence. "Who are you?" He asked cautiously.

Another glance was exchanged. "Kane" Then nodded at the woman and said "And the girl trying to kill you is Lexi."

The woman, Lexi, moved closer. "Who are _you_?"

Ben swallowed hard. "Why are you trying to kill me?"

"Hey," Kane said, apparently remembering he still had a sword in his hand, bringing its tip to Ben's neck. "we answered your question. Now answer _ours_. Who are you?"

He would have swallowed the lump forming in the back of his throat, but didn't want to graze the steel blade. A bead of sweat fell from her his temple and traveled down his face and neck. "My name's Ben. Ben Cole. Now, it's my turn again; why are you trying to kill me?"

A faint smile touched Kane's lips. "A ship with absolutely no registration codes is brought down by Sith fighters, and we're _not_ supposed to investigate?" He explained, cocking up an eyebrow slightly. "And since the Sith forced us to—" He stopped himself.

"To accept contracts on Jedi?"

"How did you know about that?" Kane asked, a flicker of anger darting across his face and lowering his weapon.

Ben's eyes found their way to his feet, without even tilting his head. "It's actually why we're here." He met Kane's gaze. "To try and negotiate a treaty between the two factions."

Despite having a sword, Kane crossed his arms across his chest. "Well, start talking then."

"Excuse me?"

He took a glance back at Lexi. "I lead the Bounty Hunter's Guild, here." Kane said with a hint of pride in his voice.

And that took Ben's voice. _Great. . ._ He thought. _What else could happen?_

Ben glanced behind Kane and saw the ship behind him was now on the ground, and could see the large area's of rust on its hull. Then he remembered about Gallai.

"Do you have medical supplies? Or a bacta tank in your ship?" Ben asked hastily, moving closer to Kane and not even noticing his eyes widening.

As Kane backed up, Lexi spoke. "Why?"

There was no point in stalling anymore. "My . . . _friend_ is hurt. I was heading out to find help when you attacked me." Ben's vision suddenly began to blur, as his shallow breathing consumed his hearing and head pounded harder then before.

"You don't look so good either, there." Kane pointed out. Ben collapsed the second the words left the man's mouth.

He came in and out of his state, the first time staring up at the bright sun above, the second having Kane looming over. He heard faintly, like across a great echoing distance, asked about where his friend was. "The cave," Ben whimpered, but wondered if it got out at all. He guessed it did, as the two people lifted him up, through Ben could only stare up at the sun, then metal ceiling panels, some of their edges infested with traces of grime, then finally a bright, almost blinding white light.

Ben felt something poke him, but he could barely notice. The thumping in his head felt like nothing he'd experienced, like his mind had actually shut down, or gone numb. Until moments later, the pounding abruptly ended. He would have smiled, had he had control in his muscles.

The young Jedi tried to scan his surroundings, but his mind didn't want to cooperate. He spoke out, though it came out only as squishy gurgle.

"Relax," A voice said. It took a second for it to register as Kane. "let the sedatives do their job. The more you fight it, the longer it'll take." After a moment, Ben complied, focusing on keeping his air slow, but steady.

But even with the medications taking effect, Ben could still feel his teeth rattle with the vibration under him. "We're getting your friend." Kane informed.

Darkness crept into the corners of his vision, yet he did not feel tired. But the Padawan would go blind if he stared at this light for much longer, so slowly shut his eyes together, and tried to ignore the bright spot on the center of his depleted sight. He slipped in and out of his awareness as the cool, welcoming numbness surrounded his mind. Then before Ben knew it, the rumbling was gone.

"What do you mean there's no one there?" A soft voice, not too far away asked.

"Hey, you wanna check the cave? Be my guest." Another voice mocked, not attempting to hide it. "I'm just telling you there's nothing in there."

_Master Gallai_. Somehow setting his teeth, Ben went against the advice and the drugs, forcing his mind to focus through the comfortable nothingness. First, he went for the restraints. The Force wouldn't help him; the clarity needed was far beyond him right now. So brute force was his next option. But when he tried, he could barely rattle the leather straps.

"I walked until I could barely see the ship, and nothing." The woman, Lexi, concluded.

You didn't go far enough! He wanted to scream out, but couldn't. His muscles burned with new energy, and as Ben thrashed about, Kane and Lexi came in.

"What are you doing?" Kane demanded, reaching out and stopping Ben by grabbing his shoulder. "Relax, or the medicine—"

Enough. He turned his head, and realized he was lying on see-through glass material with lights underneath. "Get me out of this," Ben said, unable to use his jaw. And added, "please."

Once again, darkness crept into his vision. But this time he felt the tug of unconscious, beaconing him to surrender to it. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. _I'm sorry_, he thought as his heavy eye lids closed.

Nothingness was an odd thing. He wasn't asleep, but not awake either, he was just _there_. Wherever, or whatever, _there_ was.

Then, a cold surge of energy passed through his back, like he was jabbed with a Bothan Stunner, and Ben was back to the land of the living, raising up and gasping for breath. When air came to his lungs, Ben's mind was analyzing his surroundings. His restraints were gone, and Kane and Lexi stood next to him, one holding an empty syringe in their hand with a greenish vile dripping from its pointed tip. He tried to swing his legs around, but found his whole body turning and falling over the edge of the bed, crashing hard at their feet.

In a new feat of unique single-mindedness, Ben ignored the new pain in his shoulder and staggered to his feet, gripping the doorway for a moment before making his way across to the hold to the extended ramp. Behind him, Kane and Lexi watched with an eyebrow raised each.

"Doesn't the label tell you not to move for at least an hour?" Lexi whispered.

Kane looked down at the syringe. "Yep." Then turned and threw a look at her. She tossed him the glow-lamp in her hand and he raced off.

Ben was just within range of the ship's lights, using the walls of the cave to brace himself. They had landed just inches from the entrance, leaving only small rays of sunlight to break through the crack. He focused only on the darkness in front of him, willing his body to continue despite pleas from his hurt limbs. Get over it, he bitterly told his weary legs.

Yellow light caught Ben's eye, bouncing off the walls followed by rhythmic thumping of footsteps, but it didn't stop him.

She didn't go far enough, he kept telling himself while stumbling his way. Something broke under his heel, and Ben looked down to find a broken syringe at his feet with crushed fragments. As Kane drew closer with the light, more used medical supplies were revealed, and where his master should have been, was just rock.

He fell against the wall next to him, slumping to the floor and not noticing the scrapes he was getting. Ben was too late. He'd truly failed. Kane came running up to him, dropping to one knee with worry and confusion in his expression. "What the hell are you doing?" There was no answer. Ben pressed his palm against his forehead, knowing tears would not be far behind.

_Ben. . ._ His head jerked up. It was Gallai, but after hastily looking to his sides, wondered if it was his imagination. _Come Back. . ._

There was a source, Ben knew that much, and it's all he needed. The Padawan stood at a frightening speed, causing Kane to have to catch up as he staggeringly ran back toward the ship.

But when he got there, there was nothing, until he saw part of a sleeve and half a hand in the crack between the edges of the cave and beginning of the ship. He quickly reached out and touched the hand, if anything to just know he wasn't going mad.

It was real, and the Bothan woman slid into his view as Kane came up behind Ben, panting slightly. Her wounds had gotten worse. The bump on her head had grown, changing to a deep, almost black kind of purple. Some of her cuts had re-opened, her face now covered in streaks of dried blood. Gallai's breathing was shallow, and her eyes were barely open.

By the Force, Ben wanted to gasp, if only he had the air. Before he knew it, Kane was moving him aside, getting closer to Gallai. With his help, she made it through the crack and leaned on him for balance. Her head swayed, and she was moving her arms in front of herself like a blind person. And all Ben could do was watch from the sidelines. He swore every curse he knew under his breath, and by the time they had gotten back to the medical room, he reached the last on the list.

Kane got her onto the table alone since Lexi oddly disappeared on them. Moments later, she came striding through the door, almost bumping into Ben.

"Get us back to base," Kane ordered as he put an air mask connected to a cord that lead to the ceiling to her elongated mouth. Then added, "She needs more then what we got. Just go over the mountains." Both of them turned and found Lexi still in the doorway, staring at Gallai.

"Lexi," He strongly said, enough to snap her out of it. After a moment, she left, and they were in the air in minutes.

Finally complying with his screaming legs, Ben staggered across the small room and slumped into a chair. Then found himself watching quietly as Kane cleaned up her cuts and did what he could with what he had. He wouldn't have to, if Ben only knew more about medicine, the Padawan chided himself. First instant they got back to Dantooine; he would be in line for the healer's daily class.

With a sigh, Kane finished, discarding a swab he had in his hand. She looked better, the cuts cleaned and patched, though there was probably little they could do about that bump. But there was something Ben found odd.

"Why haven't you knocked her out like you tried with me?"

Kane turned. "We don't know how bad that," He pointed at the bump. "is, so if I 'knocked her out' as you suggest, she might fall into a coma that not even your Jedi senses could get her out of."

"Where did you learn all this?"

He smiled a little. "Some of it from my dad, but most I learned from Lexi."

Ben couldn't tell if his eyebrow was raised or not. _Her_? He looked up toward the cockpit through the doorway and across the hull.

The other shrugged. "What can I say? She's got a special talent with a med kit. Besides, we teach each other what we know. Always have."

Under them, the ship buckled for a moment, then leveled out. Silence hung in the air as the life support machine ticked and hissed repeatedly; pumping what Ben was fresh air into Gallai.

"Ben," A muffled, barely audible voice said. Ben sprang to his weary feet, staggering over the bed.

"I'm here." He soothed, pulling the air mask free so she could speak.

Her eyes scanned to the edges of her vision, but her head did not move. "Where are we?" Gallai asked in a shallow breath.

"We're—" Ben stopped himself, glancing up at Kane standing against the wall where the bed was imbedded in. "We're safe." He was hoping for some kind of acknowledgment; a nod, anything, but got nothing. It was then something in the back of his mind bubbled up to the surface.

"Why did you leave the cave, master?" He asked, knowing that now probably wasn't the best time, but they _did_ need to keep her awake. Perhaps making her think would help. "And where did you go?"

She took in another weak breath before answering. "Something awoke me from my sleep, a predator. I decided it would be best to leave before it caught sent of my blood." Ben flinched upon the reminder of his inadequate work.

"I'm not suprised," Kane said, stepping forward. "That cave you were in was only one of a network, scattering all across Taren. Nasty creatures stay in them, due to the cool air and the advantage they have over any unsuspecting person who would aimlessly walk into them. We've lost a couple of good men because of them." He turned to her. "You're lucky you got one of the less inhabited ones."

Gallai glanced at him, her green eyes giving nothing away. Her neck twitched slightly, then she returned her attention to Ben. "Where are we going?"

Kane stepped in front of Ben before the Padawan could give a reply. "Hold it," He interjected, then gestured at his face. "Haven't you noticed something?" Ben stood slowly, stepping next to Kane's side.

Gallai just stared up at the man, her expression hardening. "I'm sorry, but my vision is failing right now. I cannot see anything specific about your face." Her neck twitched again as she swallowed.

"You're lying." Kane plainly stated, pointing at her neck. Ben switched between Kane and his master, waiting for an explanation of some sort. Kane leaned in closer to her, squinting his eyes a little as he did. "But it's not fear," He paused. "It's _guilt_."

He stood, putting the weight of his body on his arm against the area between the top and bottom beds. Ben glanced up and noticed Kane's hand was next to the life support controls. Then leaned in close to Gallai.

"Tell me," Kane asked softly, yet with an edge of coldness in his voice. "why are you guilty?"

Ben swallow hard, and he judged by how Gallai glanced up at the roof of her bed, she knew where is hand was too. "Fine," She submitted at last.

Kane stood, pulling his hand away and crossing his arms around his chest. She slowly turned her head toward Ben.

"I'm sorry, you deserved to know, I—"

"Don't stall." Kane cut her off. Gallai threw him a look, then inhaled slowly.

"We were devastated after the Sith War. After Exar Kun turned so many of our own against us so _easily_, the order became weary, even paranoid, about any Jedi who showed the slightest sign's of anger or the hint of the Dark Side." As she spoke, the air around Ben became thick, making it hard to see, let alone breathe. At first he thought it was a side-effect of the combination of medications he'd taken over the past few hours, but soon realized it couldn't be it. He tried blinking it away, but with time it only grew worse, until with a flash, Ben was no longer on the ship.

_He stood on the end of a large stairway, looking down at the main garden area of the Jedi Temple, paying no heed to the fast-moving traffic above. Two beings stood silently in the center of the garden, surrounded by a dozen different kind of exotic plants from all across the galaxy, lightsabers glittering in their hands. Both wore customary tan robes, with a large age difference between the two men. _

_The younger of them, standing on Ben's right, was a human barely in his twenties, with his brow furrowed in frustration with teeth set firmly together, bathed slightly in the light bouncing off his deep sapphire blade. The other was also human, wrinkles covering his worn face with long streaks of grey in his pulled back jet-black hair. His hard expression was squared in on the younger man. _

_Watching as the two began to circle each other, Gallai's voice returned to him._ "Due to our desperation, the order allowed for some Force-Sensitive beings over our normal age limit to be accepted. For the most part, it worked out well, but there was one man who thought otherwise.

_Abruptly, they stopped and struck. The younger man slashed his blade high, followed by dropping down and swiping his leg around. The older, however, merely blocked the blow and leapt up, avoiding the sideways kick and slamming his boot into the other man's face, landing a few feet back. The younger man crashed to the ground, loosing grip of his weapon as he reached up to his nose, now covered in dark blood. _

"His name was Ganner Cole, a man we found soon after the devastation of Ossus. He had lost everything there, and we hoped we could help rid himself of his anger," _Growling, the man, Ganner, threw himself to his feet, reaching out toward the plants to his right, and his lightsaber jumped into his grip, the sapphire blade flaring back to life. _ "We were wrong." _Ganner charged, saber raised up high._

_Another flash, and Ben was now in the hull of a starship, watching behind Ganner as the man stared out a large viewport at hyperspace. His deep black hair was now cropped very short, and his robes had been replaced with casual dark civilian clothing. A blaster was holstered at his waist next to his lightsaber. Ben could see Ganner's reflection in the glass, and instead of the bitter anger he saw moments ago, he saw only sadness._

"Days before the council meeting from where he was to be told to leave the order, Ganner fled Corusant., disappearing to the Outer Rim. And with the few resources we had, the order did not bother to search. That was a mistake."

_After another flash, Ben was standing in the center of an old-time bank building. The wide space only had a few small island tables, spread across, with over a dozen different people cluttered against all them and the far wall, cowering as they kept their hands on top of their heads. Bright sunlight shined through the large oval viewport ceiling. _

"For years, he ran the Outer Rim, going from one backwater planet to another, stealing with a gang he had formed." _Ben turned and saw Ganner walking with three other men, all the others having masks on their face. _"We know nothing beside that, except that they killed multiple innocent people." 

_They crowded around a metallic door, watching as one of the masked men connected a datapad to its controls. The other two broke away from the small group, pulling their masks off and bearing their blaster rifles. One was a mountain of a man, standing at least a head and a half over everyone, his clean shaven scalp bouncing sunlight from above as his repeatedly patched up clothes rustled together. The other was almost as short as the third man, his hair a mess like he'd just got out of bed with thick patches of stubble under his chin. His jaw and whole body shook, with his blood-shot eyes open as wide as they could be. _

_Ben noted the odd absence of an alarm with a cocked eyebrow. Then watched as they strode along the captives, looking down at them with fingers around the trigger of their blasters. The bigger man came to a sudden stop in front of a young couple, and after staring for a moment, smiled and grabbed the blond-haired girl from the floor. _

"_No!" The blonde's brown-haired mate screamed, throwing himself up at her, only to have a red bolt of energy shot into his head. He crumbled to the floor without a word. _

_The girl cried out in horror as the shaky man, the nozzle of his blaster still hot from the shot, lowered his weapon and smiled, revealing two rows of crooked teeth. The large man leaned in closer to the girl he held. "You're pretty," He said in his deep voice. "Would you like to make me happy? I think you do. Let's go—"_

"_Hey!" Ben turned and found Ganner coming toward the man, hands clenched in. "What the hell do you think you are you doing?" _

"_Having some fun," The other replied, widening his smile to a full-blown grin. "Try it someday, cap." _

_Surprisingly, when Ganner reach the man, despite the height difference he did not back down. "We're not here for fun. So put her down and get back to work." _

"_You know, you talk big, but you don't actually help out," The big man stepped toward him, looming over Ganner like a mesa. "Maybe you should start taking orders from us from now on." _

"_I tell you what, when you are able to say the words 'undercover operation' without stopping to think about it, I'll gladly come work for you. But 'till then—" He stopped after catching the big man glace behind him. _

_Ganner dropped down a second before the large man shot off a single bolt, but instead of him, it hit the wide-eyed man behind just as he got his blaster up. And before he could register it, Ganner put a shot into his thick neck._

_And just as he reached out and snatched the girl, her cheeks now soaked in tears, the alarms went off. _

_He cupped his hands around his ears, trying to block out the screeching, electronic sirens. Ganner turned and saw the last man standing over the hacked open control box, frantically pounding away at his datapad. Watching this, Ben didn't think it was possible, but Ganner found a way to scream over the sirens. "Leave it!" He shouted. Then ran to the nearest wall not occupied by people. _

_Pulling the metal cylinder from his belt, Ganner ignited the sapphire blade, though the distinctive Snap-Hiss was almost completely drowned out. He plunged the blade in, slowly carving a man-sized oval just as the final man made it to him, his arms filled with his technology and a few small bags of credits. They made it through the hole just as officials busted down the barricaded door. _

_And for a moment, Ben was in darkness, listening to Gallai's voice. _"This man was your father. And after the Mandalorian Wars, when Revan was recruiting and turning Jedi to his side, they found Ganner, and it wasn't long before he joined them."

_He blinked, and was suddenly at a small enclave on some strange world he'd never seen. The building sat on a platform in the middle of an ocean, its main structure a large dome. Star cruisers filled the sky, with fighter's zipping past, spraying the structure with green bolt as big as he was. A transport landed on a landing platform not far from him, and a door behind him shot up into the ceiling, revealing a group of armor-clad Jedi, lightsabers active and in hand._

_Across the way, the exit ramp of the transport lowered, and a crowd came charging out of the hole, a variety of crimson, purple, and yellow lightsabers igniting at once. Except for one. At the front of them, Ganner sprinted, his deep sapphire saber in hand and being the first to meet the Jedi. _

"Unbeknownst to us, Ganner had uncovered the locations of some of our most secret training enclaves, even some which I didn't know about. Some were able to defend themselves, but most were reduced to ash by Revan and his army. There's no telling how many of our most entrusted secrets fell into the Sith Lord's hands."

_A rainbow of plasma blades clashed all at once. Around the courtyard, Jedi fought Dark Jedi, with each passing second, a limb was cut off or a life was ended. And in the thick of it all, was Ganner. He hacked and slashed his blade around his body in a crazy feat to keep himself alive. _

_Suddenly, someone bumped into his back. He turned, and the beautiful woman, her long blond hair waving in the wind, blocked a strike with her ruby blade that would have taken Ganner's head. "Where were you!?" _

"_Busy," She simply replied, standing back-to-back as a group of Padawan's surrounded them. _

"And in the years of battle, he fell for a fallen Jedi Knight named Ellaina Dral, who'd been one of the few Jedi who'd survived the Mandalorian Wars with Revan, and subsequently joined him without question. We later learned through ship logs that they had traveled to Ithor before they conquered it," _He blinked, and he was again surrounded by ocean, but this time on an island, at sunset watching as both Ganner and Ellaina held hands with a Mon Calamari priest at their side, reading from a holobook. Though Ganner hadn't changed, Ellaina was in a long, flowing tan dress. The Mon Cal shut the book and said one last thing before they leaned forward and kissed. _"and married."

"We're sure you were conceived in the same year. And after intercepting messages between them and fleet commander's, we discovered that they wanted out. But once you're in the Sith army, you don't leave. So they ran. It was just over a year, and we found them on Corusant."

_Everything swelled around him, until Ben was sitting the backseat of a speeder, looking up at Ellaina in the passenger's seat. Her blond hair flapped wildly. _

"I was apart of the strike team sent to bring them in. Our goal was _capture_, though I doubt the Sith would say the same. But they ran, so we pursued."

_Ellaina swung around in her seat, pulling out a blaster and firing off a few rounds before swinging back. Green bolts flew past the speeder, and Ben felt the vehicle buckle under him, and knew one of those had connected. After a moment, He saw Ganner, his hair starting to grow again and with a thin beard, spin around in his seat in front of Ben and extended his arm. Blue lightning shot out from his fingertips._

"_Back!" He shouted. "Leave us alone!!" _

_The speeder buckled again, stopping the lightning as Ganner was almost thrown, but managed to hang on and get himself back into his seat and out of Ben's view._

"_Pull up!!" Ellaina screamed, pointing forward._

"_I can't!" In response, she unbuckled her safety belt in a flash and threw herself back at Ben, arms spread wide__--_

_And everything went dark. _

"The speeder crashed into a wall, killing Ganner and Ellaina instantly. And while investigating the crash sight," _Ben's eyes opened slowly, and found himself looking up at the face of a young female Bothan while in her arms. A black braid hung down to her shoulders. _"I found you, Ben." _A small, fat arm came up and touched the end of her nose. She smiled. _"I'm not sure what it was, weather it was the Force, or just intuition, but I knew you were special, and after what had happened, I swore to be your teacher."

His vision flashed again, and Ben was back on the ship. He inhaled sharply, almost jumping in his chair. Gallai was still in her bed, but Kane was leaning against the wall, his eyes telling Ben he was completely lost in thought.

Gallai took in another slow breath. "And that's the story."

She looked up back at Kane as best she could. "Your turn." Gallai breathed.

It took a moment, but Kane finally snapped back. "My father, Gonab Lors, was a Mandalorian warrior who found me as a baby. I was alone, with nothing but a blanket to protect me. He brought me here, raising me like the biological son he never had."

Before Ben could ask one of the millions of questions, the ship shook and with the light-headed feeling passing through his cranium, he knew they were landing.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **

The base, appropriately title Blood Bones Grove, yielded surprising results. For such a crude name, one would inspect a half-used med-kit and an old blood stained bed, not a fully operation medical wing. Perhaps what shocked Ben truly was how clean it was.

White medical instruments covered the room, reflecting the light from above and almost blinding Ben. The Padawan watched as his master was lowered slowly into a bacta tank by both a Gammorian and Weequay assistants. Her robes were being cleaned and repaired on the farthest side of the room. The doctor who was working on his leg, an attractive blond, finished packing her things into her bag and strode off. Ben felt horrible, as he could not bring himself to look at her often, even glance, simply due to how much she looked like his mother.

After allowing the medications to numb his leg, Ben got up to his feet and started walking, only to find Kane and Lexi in the corner sitting on a bench.

Lexi was pulling the last of the roll of bacta-wrap she had around her exposed stomach, as Kane held her shirt up, though paid no attention to her, instead staring out into space. Ben was a little surprised that her suite was two parts. He limped over, stopping in front of them.

"Thank you." Ben said. Lexi looked straight up to meet his gaze, though Kane remained lost in his own world.

"For what?" Kane asked.

Even though he wasn't looking, Ben still gestured at the medical room. "For this. For taking us in and tending to our wounds."

A faint smile touched his brother's lips. "_After_ we tried to kill you."

"Well," Ben said, reaching up and stroking his chin. "since you bring it up. . ." He stopped as the door beside them slid open.

A man, couldn't have been more then twenty years standard age to Ben's estimation, came charging through the doorway, passing Ben in a fury and almost knocking the Padawan down. He stopped in the middle of the room. "Kane! Kane!" He screamed twisting his head frantically.

Kane wasn't paying much attention, through did lazily raise his arm and look up at the man. "I'm over here, Faleur."

He, _Faleur_, turned and ran to him. The man extended something to Kane, and only after he took it was Ben able to see it was a comnlink. "It's _him_," Faleur informed. "And he's not happy." Kane activated the device and stood straight up, brining it to his mouth and walking aimlessly around.

Now that he was standing still, Ben could get a good look at this Faleur fellow. His height was average, and wore simple shirt, trousers, and boots. His blond hair hung a mess across his face, with strands of brown scattered about. He had strong cheekbones, but that was it, everything else looked normal. In fact, the only thing that stuck out was the orange vest with an odd emblem on its front. Ben watched while he inhaled and exhaled slowly, returning his face to normal colors.

"What's he want?" Lexi asked, lowering her skin-tight shirt over her bandaged waist.

Faleur shrugged. "Didn't tell me anything, besides to get Kane or he would 'crush my throat under his boot'." His eyes found their way to Ben, and Faleur's eyes went wide. He backed up against the wall, and his hand inched toward the blaster holstered at his side. But stopped when Lexi's hand touched his.

The man struggled to speak, spitting out half questions and sometimes only single letters. He stopped when Ben showed his own hands. "It's a long story," Ben simply said with a slight grin.

An unexpected curse echoed through the room, and virtually everyone turned to Kane as he talked into the device. Ben limped over to Faleur. "Who is that?"

Faleur turned. His shock had reseeded for the most part, though his were still pretty wide. "He's a Sith Lord. The one who was sent here to supposedly 'fortify our defenses against the Jedi', but everyone here knows we're being watched."

Ben glanced at Kane, then back to Faleur. "Where is he?"

"They set up a base in a clearing just a few clicks from here." Faleur informed, his attention now entirely on Kane. Ben joined him. His brother was almost stamping at this point, and his near-screaming into the comnlink made it simple to eavesdrop.

"I did not break our agreement." Kane retorted firmly.

"Oh, but you did, child." A deep, yet cold voice replied through the device. "I know you took survivors from that crash. And I know at least one of them is a Jedi. So by harboring these people, you violate our contract."

Kane gripped the comnlink tighter. "But. . ." The voice continued. "if you surrender them to us, then perhaps I'll overlook this defiance."

"No." Kane said before a breath could be drawn.

"Don't pretend you have a choice, child. And you know exactly what we can do to you and your people with the press of a button." There was a pause. "So, what will it be?"

Kane let the comnlink lower as he looked around him at all the eager faces staring, though caught a hint of fear in some. And after seeing his brother, Lexi, and best friend, the answer was simple. He raised the device back to his lips.

"You want them? Come get 'em." And cut the connection.


	5. Battle of Blood Bones Grove

Soon after the challenge was given, Kane ordered for the shields to the city to be set up as he, Ben, Faleur, and four dozen of his best men gathered outside Blood Bones Grove's walls. And as crews brought portable computers Ben could feel the temperature decrease rapidly, even through his new clothes. He looked up at the amber sky, obscured only by a few thin clouds. But with all the mountains surrounding them, watching the sunset was beyond him. He sighed aloud, then looked down at the hold-out blaster Kane had given him in his hand, the grip fitting perfectly in his palm.

But it was no replacement for his lightsaber. And despite practicing with it for the past hour, sliding it up his sleeve then quickly pulling it to his hand and firing off a few rounds while nobody was near, Ben couldn't get used to it. And he doubted the person Kane had sent to retrieve his saber from the crash sight would get there before the fighting did.

A person on a speeder bike abruptly wisped past him, pulling up next to Kane. Ben smiled as the boy, couldn't have been over sixteen, dismounted his bike and stepped toward his brother, holding out a cylinder in his hand. Sometimes, it was good to be proven wrong. After Kane said something to him, the boy gave a salute and ran off, a broad grin on his face.

Before Ben could take his first step though, Kane was already sprinting toward him. He had changed out of his first wears, which to Ben, looked just like the kind they wear in speeder competitions, now wearing a skin-tight suite like Lexi, all decked out with weapons and devices on his belt. But unlike hers, he had an armored breastplate, with a worn out symbol painted in red that Ben didn't know or understand, but it sure wasn't the guilds. He in turn, gave Ben the same thing, though replaced the breastplate and weapons with a vest he was told could take cannon shots point-blank range.

Kane came to a stop in front of him, only slightly out of breath. "I think you lost this," His brother said, extending the weapon.

Ben took it in his free hand. "Thanks." Ben said with a half-smile. Then, glancing down at his hand, extended the hold-out blaster. "Maybe you should have this back."

Kane looked at it, but shook his head. "No, you keep it." Before he could reply, Kane turned and walked three steps, then stopped and turned his head back at him. "Who knows, it might save your life some day." And he was off, running back to his people.

Ben watched him until he was out of sight, then fumbling the activator stud, a familiar yellow blade appeared. The humming became mesmerizing to him, drowning out the random sounds of machines being setup or people chatting to one another. A pleasant change, but forced himself out of it. Then after glancing around him, began practicing his quick-draw, now throwing his lightsaber into the mix.

________________________________________________________________________

The smell of sweat, oil, machine and fear was strong in Viper's nostrils as he watched while the camp's construction was finishing up.

After finding a pocket of space inside the thick of the mesas, they brought in their main long-range weaponry that didn't require flight, and even Viper could hold back his grin. The three cannons were almost halfway up the mountains when their long firing nozzles stood at a high angle. At their bases, people scurried around like ants, setting up machines or programming the technical algorithms required for firing. The special ammunition would have to be loaded soon.

Viper turned and began striding down the hill he stood on, calling on the Force to keep his balance. He wanted to watch it personally, just to insure the fools did nothing to ruin his plan. When he reached it though, it was already in good hands.

"Move it, you scum!" A soldier in shining crimson armor barked, gesturing at the cannon with one hand. "The enemy will be knocking down our doors any second now. And I want to make sure we can knock them back."

The Sith Lord almost smiled. Altrin always had a tight grip on things. Maybe that is why the other men call him Viper's 'little apprentice' when they think no one's around. Perhaps they were right to assume. He did not have the Force within him, or he truly _would_ be his apprentice. When Viper first arrived on Taren, Altrin was in the detention hold, and was to be executed for speaking out against a commanding officer. Then he killed him. But after feeling the unbridled anger he held and a quick reconnaissance mission to test his skills, he knew there was something that he could work with. Months soon turned to a year, and in that time he trained the man personally, to where he could get him promoted to the rank of supreme commando. And in that time learned that he and Altrin were one in the same. The young man's life had been just as miserable as his, filled with pain, death, and more.

The commando watched his subordinates around him, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword holstered on his back at an angle. Viper made him construct it like a Sith apprentice would a lightsaber; spending days finely crafting each piece to his high standards. But he did it. And forever would his pain, sweat and blood be etched in its blade.

As would be his enemy's.

"Altrin, you're with me." Viper said, passing the commando and heading for his personalized speeder, the _Agony, _resting in standby mode at the edge of the camp. Altrin followed closely.

Reaching the bike, Viper swung his leg around to its other side and began the startup sequence. Small lights came to life on the few little screens in front of him as Viper pulled a comnlink earpiece from the console, squeezing it into his ear lobe and tried to ignore the thin cord connecting it to the console. A green light blipped on his center screen.

"Ready?" Viper asked, pressing the device's switch in.

"Standing by," Altrin's pitched down voice replied. Viper turned his head sharply and found Altrin booting up his own bike across the camp.

Switching frequencies on his console, Viper spoke again. "Commander, how long until the cannon's ammunition is loaded?"

"Cannon's One and Two are ready to go," A faint young voice said over the comn. "We just need to wait a few minutes for Three to be loaded."

Viper clenched his teeth. "We need that advantage, commander. Fire One and Two as soon we clear the mountains."

"Acknowledged, sir." Switching the frequency back to Altrin, Viper gripped the throttles of his bike and accelerated into the thin path in front of him, with Altrin following closely behind.

________________________________________________________________________

Ben walked over to Kane, lightsaber in hand and blaster on his belt, but stopped as a team of people hefted a pair of portable defense cannons past him. He needed to ask for a little less then a skintight tunic, simply due to no longer being able to fit the blaster up his sleeve. It was like each time he stretched it out, it grew tighter instead of looser. But when he opened his mouth to speak, Faleur ran up behind Kane and beat him to the punch.

"Kane," Faleur said, reaching out and touching his shoulder. The man looked slightly out of breath. "Scanner's picked up something."

His brother glanced back at Ben before following Faleur, already in a full sprint. He glanced around, wondering what to do, and found his eyes stopping on his master, sitting on the dirt with her legs crossed and eyes closed. Ben could see the freshly sown up seams and patchwork on her robes, and felt her presence even through her healing trance. He had disputed her decision at first, saying she wasn't healed enough to fight, even compromising with just staying in the bacta tank for a few more hours, but per the stubbornness of her Bothan heritage, declined his offer and fell into the trance. With few options, Ben ran over to the console Kane and Faleur were huddled around.

On the largest of the three screens, the one Faleur was pointing at, was a basic layout of the field; a massive oval shape consuming most of it, with darkness taking up its edges with green lines crossing across the screen. Just off center in the oval, was a blue spot about as big as Ben's fingernail, with a tiny bright green blip in the middle of it, flashing on and off repeatedly. And barely past the black edges on the opposite end of the screen, were two red dots approaching slowly.

"Speeders?" Kane asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"Looks like," Faleur confirmed, following his friend's actions and watching the dots closely.

Kane whipped around, keeping his expression as professional as he could. "Listen up!" His brother barked. "We've got two on bikes heading our way, and probably a battalion after that, so I want those cannons ready to—" He was cut off by the loud chirping coming from the console.

"Hold that thought," Faleur put in. With a press of a small button, the chirping ceased. Ben glanced over at the screen—

And found two more red dots. Double the size of the first and moving toward them twice as fast.

When Kane got to it, his eyes widened and he look back up at the sky. Everyone followed, including Ben, and though they didn't know what it was, they knew it was coming down right toward them.

"Move it!" Kane called out to a small group of people setting up a cannon. They looked up in union, and dropped what they were doing and dived away just before one of the two boulders crashed into it, as the other landed harmlessly a few feet from anyone.

_Rocks?_ Ben thought as everyone but Kane, him, and Faleur moved in closer to the destroyed cannon. For a moment nothing happened, until the rocks came apart at the middle, rising to reveal a series of short firing nozzles that came out. And in a heartbeat, they began firing.

But it was not energy bolts like Ben inspected, instead being shards of steel dipped in what could only be described as liquid-hot magma. They struck everyone close, shooting through their body's to the next one behind them. Ben's head turned instinctively to Gallai, and felt a shiver of shock at the sight his master. She was on her feet, lightsabers blazing and knocking shards away from the Bounty Hunters. And once it appeared the short, yet effective barrage was over, she broke into a full sprint away from the battle and toward the mountains. The two speeders were in view now, and Ben watched as with a flick of her saber, Gallai knocked it down, soon becoming a blur in the distance.

A shiver of danger sense prickled up his spine, and Ben saw the shard a second before it was at Kane. Reaching out to the Force, he threw a shield around him and his brother, causing the shard to bounce off the edge and continue past them.

Kane sharply jerked his head back, and Ben felt a wave of anger like none other. He turned to discover that his shield had protected he and Kane—

But not Faleur. He was slumped over the sensor console, still as stone with the magma-dipped shard dug into the locks of his blond hair. Ben turned, not sure what to say or if to apologize, but Kane was already charging away from him, blaster in hand.

________________________________________________________________________

A blur passed by Viper before he could get his lightsaber free from his belt. He looked back and found the nose of Altrin's bike cut off, the edges still glowing and watched the commando be thrown from his vehicle as it hit the dirt. "Report," Viper growled.

"A Jedi took down my bike, but my suite took most of the impact."

Viper clenched his teeth together. "Just get to the battle."

His mood lightened as he approached the outside of the structure. Mayhem was everywhere; people scrambling to avoid both the shards that shot out, but the small pools of lava the rocked distributed too, forgetting all about the half-completed cannons they were setting up. Viper grinned as he activated one end of his weapon and struck the crimson blade through the head of a Wookie Hunter.

________________________________________________________________________

_Faleur's dead._ The words kept repeating in Kane's mind as he charged forward with nowhere to go. _They all died while I just stood and watched, frozen by my own fear. Well, I don't care who or why, but someone's going to die. _

Something hit his foot, almost making him trip, though caught himself at the last instant. Gripping his blaster, he whipped around. But the anger seethed quickly. A boy, the one who'd grabbed Ben's lightsaber, was on the ground holding another young man about his age, a shard buried in his chest. His eyes were closed, but he was still apparently breathing.

"Boss," The messenger pleaded, eyes bright red with dirty tear-soaked cheeks. "Please help him." His lower lip began shaking.

_Get over it, _He wanted to tell him. _My best friend died, so why should yours get to live?_ Kane opened his mouth to say the very sentence, but stopped himself. His father, Gonab's favorite saying that never rang more truth then now to him: The grief of one should _never_ be passed to another.

But there was nothing he could do for the boy, not under these circumstances. His eye found a discarded blaster slung over a corpse.

"Protect him," Kane ordered, throwing the blaster to the boy, who caught it with both hands. "and the second a medical unit gets out here, flag them down. I don't care how many bodies you have to drag him over to get there."

The boy stared for a moment, but eventually wiped his face with a sleeve and nodded. Returning the gesture, Kane turned and began firing his blaster at the lightsaber-armed man on the speeder bike, oblivious to the hoards of Sith troops pouring out the path of the mountains and heading toward them.

________________________________________________________________________

Gallai extended her arm, and with the flick of a wrist, severed the nose of the second speeder and sent it crashing to the dirt, throwing its armor-clad driver off. Smiling, she sprinted into the thin path they came from, to find herself face-to-face with a squadron of troopers.

Her weapons were moving before she was, batting away bolt after bolt that came at her. But she could take them all, not without help. Two more boulders passed overhead, their shadows going through the troops and her. Gritting her teeth and suddenly reminded of her goal, Gallai ran along the mountain wall, leaving the troopers in her dust.

They let her pass, she knew. It wasn't their mission to capture or kill her. That was fine with Gallai, it meant less distractions for her. It only took her a few minutes to reach the site from there.

Hidden behind her perch, Gallai was able to figure their operating system fairly easy. The three cannons, pointed almost straight up, were launching the rocks, with people scrambling at the bases to get them re-loaded, but it wasn't an easy process. Taking in a silent breath and rehearsing the first line of the Jedi Code, she leapt down.

________________________________________________________________________

Through the screaming, calls for help and blaster shots Ben forced his mind to stay focused and sharp. Turning his head, he took a quick scan of the area. Kane was out of his sight now, and two new people have arrived, one crimson armored Sith soldier fending people off with a sword, the other a lightsaber-armed being on a speeder bike, cutting down Bounty Hunter after Bounty Hunter from his perch. Two more rocks came out from the mountain tops, and Ben swung around.

He reached out and grabbed Faleur's collar. "I'm sorry," Ben whispered as he pulled the body off the console. Stepping in front of the computer, he went to work. Lights flashed across his face as Ben scurried to activate the shield. The system was complex, but he'd seen this kind before, or something close to it, and with the flip of a switch, the purple energy shield came up around the city.

A second too late, though.

The boulders fell into the gap just before the shield beams connected. Ben's heart ached terribly, feeling all the deaths within the walls. He clutched his chest for a moment and staggered forward, catching himself on the console. But forced himself to stand on his own. There was nothing he could do for those people, despite the nagging pain in the back of his mind, but he could help _these_ men outside.

So grabbing the lightsaber from his belt, Ben ignited the yellow blade and charged toward the one on the speeder, realizing on the way that hoards of Sith troopers were halfway between the mountains and them.

________________________________________________________________________

Beneath the speeder, the repulser's screeched as Viper jerked his vehicle harshly to the right, grinning broadly as he did. The Jedi had revealed himself. Though it seemed almost too easy to fend him off. But this one had a smidge more common sense then other Jedi he'd heard of; deciding to halt his wasted efforts on Viper and move on the approaching troopers. Viper's eye caught a glimmer reflecting off Altrin's armor. . .

"Altrin," Viper said hastily. "Jedi on the right flank."

He turned the second the words left his mouth, stopping his attack on a Weequay mid-strike just in time to catch the Jedi's blade on his own. For a moment, his grin fractured slightly, but tightened and grew as Altrin knocked the Jedi's weapon from his fleeting hands. Then, laser fire started coming from the troops. With no cover or lightsaber, the Jedi could only flip over Altrin, making the bolts that would have ended him simply bounce off Altrin's crimson armor as he turned his back to them and make his way to the Jedi as he ran, sword in hand.

Returning his attention to the fledgling hunters below, Viper beamed with pride.

________________________________________________________________________

Red bolts zinged all around the site, forcing everyone, including Kane, to take refuge where they could get it. Crouched behind one of the used-up boulders, Kane rose and shot three times, all in different direction with two of them connecting and causing the unfortunate soldiers to collapse, then ducked back down and began replacing his blaster's ammunition clip. He stopped after pulling it free as something bumped his thigh. Kane glanced down—

And found Ben's lightsaber resting against his lap.

Reaching down and grabbing the weapon, his eyebrow slowly shot up. Abruptly, Kane jerked his head around, his heart racing until he found his brother. Ben was running away from the battle zone, arms flailing with a crimson armored Sith trooper following closely. He finished the re-loading and leveled his blaster on them, but stopped. Kane knew he was likely to hit Ben from this distance instead of the trooper, and without even his lightsaber, he didn't want to risk it.

A scream through the raging blaster fire caught his attention, Kane whipping his head around to see a girl, no older then thirteen, cowering behind a twisted sheet of steel that had once been a console's hull panel across the field from him, calling out for help as her defense was slowly cut down by energy bolts. From what he could tell, she was crying.

Kane wanted to demand why she was out here, but it wouldn't get anything done. He looked down at the hilt, his thumb finding the activator stud and pushing it in. With a _Snap-Hiss_, the brilliant yellow blade appeared, its almost musical hum drowning out the wretched sounds of battle. He inhaled a breath. This is probably a bad idea, Kane thought to himself, but when has that ever stopped me before?

Releasing his held breath and gripping both the lightsaber and his blaster, Kane jumped from his spot.

The difference between a lightsaber and a sword were astounding, as he was quickly learning. His swings were wide though controlled, and was even able to catch a few of the incoming bolts on the blade and returned the gesture with a few of his own. Kane's mind was constantly at work; having to focus on where the emitter was at all times so he wouldn't hack off a limb with the weightless blade. A minute and a half later, he was there.

The panel was almost completely gone, and Kane found the poor girl on the dirt in the fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably. Upon closer inspection, he saw she was holding her shoulder, with trails of dark blood trickling through her fingers. He leaned it close.

"Shhh," Kane soothed, trying to keep his voice above the raging blasters. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here." The crying slowed, enough for her to look up at him. Kane gave her the warmest smile he could muster.

"I know this hurts, but the wound can only get worse out here, so I need you to be brave and get inside the city." He pointed at the closed access door across from them.

"But they won't let me in!" The girl shot back, wincing in pain and gripping her shoulder tighter.

Ducking his head from a bolt, Kane dug into his pocket and pulled his access pass out. "Take this," He said, said, waiting for her to take it. "Now they'll let you in. And get that," Kane gestured at her shoulder. "patched up. Tell them Kane sent you. You'll be the first one they treat."

To her credit, she tried to smile. She didn't fully get there, but it still touched him. After glancing at his blaster's ammo reading, he turned back to her. "Go!"

It took her a few second to roll to her feet with the bad shoulder. But once the girl began running for the door with the card in hand, Kane jumped out from the shrapnel gun blazing and lightsaber whirling, trying to draw their fire away from her.

________________________________________________________________________

Making another pass, Viper bared his teeth in a scowl after seeing the Jedi had returned and got his weapon back. After taking a quick glance around the battle field, the Sith Lord saw no sign of Altrin among the blaster fire. Blood boiling in his vanes, Viper went straight for the Jedi, ignoring the hunters and troopers alike.

The Jedi turned a heartbeat before he was on him, raising the lightsaber to block, but it was all for not. Viper knocked the yellow blade away with a single, powerful swing, sending it skidding away toward the charging Sith troopers. Then after shutting down his lightsaber and jamming it onto his belt, Viper reached out and caught the Jedi in a Force-Grip, pulling him to his outstretched hand by the collar.

He struggled, of course, clawing at the muscled arm that grasped him. Until he looked up at Viper. His eyes were wide and pupils were shrunk; burning a bright orange and almost churning like a slow-moving whirlpool. "Sleep," Viper said slowly, gazing into the Jedi's fading eyes.

Viper caught the Jedi as he slumped down, throwing him onto the back of his bike. Kicking back the accelerator, they were off; going for a different path then the one Viper and the troopers came in from. And with a final glance back at the battle, the Sith Lord released his hold on the Jedi for a moment to unleash a flurry of blue lightning at the last remaining tight-knit group of hunters, and watched as each one slumped to the ground, still as stone.

________________________________________________________________________

The explosion wracked Gallai's ears as she plunged her two lightsabers into the base of one of the cannon's, deafening her for a split-second to the energy bolts passing all around her. But shook it off quickly and moved on. A group of troopers blocked her path to the other two cannons, their guns raised and pointed at her.

Raising her sabers, she deflected the bolts as they came, bouncing off her viridian blades and sending them back to her attackers. In less then five heartbeats, the thirteen soldiers that stood in her path had been reduced to two. Both ran, dropping their weapons and calling out 'Retreat' to the panicking techs around the base, pointing blankly at a thin path across from them.

She let them clear, though none came within ten meters of her and her weapons. Once they were out of the way, Gallai moved in on the cannon's.

They stood parallel from each other, just a couple dozen feet separating them. She charged toward the closest one, releasing a lightsaber and sending it spinning toward the other as she leapt and plunged her first saber into the main targeting computer with a two-handed grip.

The screen shattered in a shower of sparks, forcing Gallai to look away as she jumped back, calling her other lightsaber to her outstretched hand without looking. A thunderous boom caught her attention, and Gallai looked up and saw a final boulder fly up past the mountain tops as the cannon's nozzle from which it was fired from fell apart. The other soon followed.

Closing down her weapons, Gallai sighed loudly, taking a moment to draw from the Force to rejuvenate her weary muscles. Abruptly, the healing ended as like a constrictor to a rat, her heart tightened and in the back of her mind, a sensor went off. "Ben!" Gallai yelled allowed, running to the path she came front and calling on the Force to lengthen her strides.

________________________________________________________________________

His heart beating the edges of his ribs, Ben continued to run from the battle, trying to avoid the crimson-armored soldier's blade and ignore his horrible laughing. He paid no heed to where he was running to; just running . . . running . . . and running. Until there was nowhere left to go.

They had reached the mountains, only a wall of rock in front of them with no paths, except for a cave, stretching many feet over them. The bridge of Ben's foot hit something, sending him crashing down to the dirt in front of the cave. But before he could get fully turned around to stand, the soldier had leapt atop him, using his armored shins to pin down his arms.

He raised his sword over his helmet, blade pointed down at Ben with blood trickling down the steel blade, dripping off its end onto Ben.

"Goodbye, Jedi," The soldier said gravely before thrusting the blade downward—

Only to stop centimeters from Ben's nose as a low rumble growl came echoing from the cave. The soldier looked up, and the growl became a full-blown roar, with warm air touching Ben's skin. Something whipped out from the black hole, a blur that reached out and plucked the soldier from atop Ben, pulling him back to its lair.

Ben looked back at the cave, and winced as the screaming ended as soon as it began with a wet crunch. The Padawan threw himself to his feet and began running back to the battlefield consumed with energy-bolts, deciding it would probably be safer there then it was here.

He stopped as another blur blew past him, whipping his hair wildly about. But Ben recognized the sound of strained repulser's, and looked back and saw it was a speeder. And though the driver was beyond his view, the person lying unconscious on its back wasn't. . .

"Kane!" Ben screamed as the speeder scaled up the wall next to the cave, dropping out of sight through a small indent in the rock.

"Kane?" A small, familiar voice asked.

Ben looked down at his body, searching for the source of Lexi's voice and finding the little receiver on his collar. But before a confused reply could be uttered, Ben caught sight of the violet veil over the city dissipating, and allowing a short single fighter to rise up from just behind its great walls. The fighter began to skid away from the city and toward him.

The Padawan caught sight of the boulders already falling from the amber sky. "Lexi, move away—" But it was too late.

A rock crashed through the fighter's wing, leaving a clean hole as it reached full speed. The fighter buckled for a moment before the nose dipped down and slammed against the dirt, bending it up at a vertical angle. It bounced and skidded multiple times, flipping onto its front before coming to a complete stop between Ben and the battle-zone, leaving a trail of machine, wire, and glass in its wake.

"Lexi!" Ben shouted, rushing to get to her.

________________________________________________________________________

The battle was over, and fewer then a dozen remained from the original four dozen. Ben watched as people helped get the survivors to one of the stretchers lied out, picked up or moved debris from the battle, and cover the cold bodies with a black tarp, lining them up with all the others in a group as large as the battle-zone itself. Ben's insides churned from the sight.

He turned to Lexi, lying on a stretcher on the end of the line with cords of fluid and blood being pumped into her as a small device at her side kept track of her vitals. The two worse wounds she had was a piece of shrapnel lodged in both her shoulder and lower shin. It took the medical officer almost half an hour to extract both, and another hour patching her up and injecting the pain medications. Though with the heavy need of doctors, he did not do anything to heal or clean the variety of small cuts that uncanvassed her body. So Ben did it for her, though to him it didn't feel like enough.

Ben looked up at the next cart, occupied by a ragged looking young man with the boy who'd retrieved his lightsaber standing at his side, asleep clutching his unconscious friend's hand. It looked bad for him at first from Ben's glanced in between Lexi's shrapnel removal, though now it seemed he would live to see another day.

Reaching down, he clasped his hand over Lexi. "I'm sorry," Ben apologized, holding back tears. "Kane's gone, and I didn't do anything to stop it." His other hand coiled into a fist. "I ran from the battle, caring more about my life then others; that's not what I should be, and yet I did it."

Ben gripped her hand. "But I promise I'll get him back." He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead before finishing. "No exceptions."

Standing to his full height, he walked off, forcing himself not to look back. The Padawan stopped in the middle of the field, feeling the uneasiness of everyone around him and leaving him be as he gazed at the mountains. The sky was growing darker by the second. It would be night soon, meaning he would have to search the mountain in black.

"It won't be easy," Someone commented behind him. He glanced back at his master, having not seen her since she helped free Lexi from the fighter. But then returned his view to the mountains.

"I know,"

"Are you ready?" She asked, holding up his lightsaber in her hand. He grabbed it from her grasp without looking.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Ben confirmed, clipping the hilt to his belt. Both inhaled a long breath before breaking into a Force-assisted sprint toward the mountains.


	6. Confronting the Darkness

At night, the Sith Base, Ben concluded, turned into a haunted crypt. Four brooding walls stood almost halfway up the mountains that surrounded it, putting Ben and Gallai at even point with the wall's peak from where they hid. Even under the white light of the twin moons above, the two Jedi could barely get an outline of the mausoleum past the walls, as if the building itself could only be bathed in darkness alone, but the outline that _was_ visible was enough for them. Gallai stood from behind the cluster of short rocks they found, Ben doing the same and like her being careful to stay in shadow, to keep the guards at the foot of the mountain oblivious to their presence.

Ben opened his mouth to ask how they would get across without detection, and Gallai leapt without a sound from next to him, landing on the wall's edge in a crouch. Rolling his eyes at the gesture, he followed her lead.

The edge was just large enough for their feet, but not much else. Peering down below, Ben's jaw actually fell. A cloud of blackness blanketed the other side of the wall, beginning centimeters down from them and clinging to both the wall and the fortress itself like a web. Suddenly, this didn't seem as simple as Ben first thought.

"How are we going—" Ben was cut off when abruptly, Gallai jumped down, the ends of her robe flapping as she plunged into the heart of the darkness and disappeared a second later.

Ben grimaced. He knew what he would and wouldn't do, and jumping head-first into a field of darkness was one he _wouldn't_. So instead he crouched down and spun his body around, and calling on the Force, stuck his hands and the ends of his feet against the cold steel and began climbing down. It took him just over twenty minutes to reach the bottom, wincing in pain as with each step the skin of his bare hands stuck to the metal, forcing him to pull them out of the freezing grasp and surely leave a mark, but to him, at least, it was the lesser of two evils.

Whether your eyes were open or shut at the bottom didn't matter. Ben couldn't see the hand he knew was in front of his face, and on the assumption blinked a few times to insure his eyes were still open. Nothing.

An emerald blade of energy came to life in front of him, causing Ben to jump back and release a quiet yelp. When Gallai came into the limited blade's glow, he saw her index finger was in front of her elongated mouth. She then gestured to her right and began walking, with Ben following closely behind to stay in the light. As he did, he looked up at the walls towering around them.

Why was there no light? He thought to himself. Alarms should be blaring, yet nothing has happened. Are these Sith truly that arrogant?

Probably. Gallai came to a stop and a second later, Ben saw why. They had reached the base of the fortress itself, specifically a door. It stood only a few inches taller then him, but spanned several dozen meters off both to his sides. The glow caught against the dark steel, reflecting it back as a dull, viridian light. Gallai approached it, taking a hand off her lightsaber and holding it up, palm open toward the door, just stopping before it. Slowly, her eyes closed and brow furrowed as she concentrated, slightly inclining her head to the right a bit. Ben heard a faint metallic click on the other side and Gallai relaxed, wiping the few beads of sweat from her forehead and straightening herself.

Then taking a quick breath, she resumed her two-handed grip and plunged the emerald blade into the center of the door in one swift motion. A smile touching the corner of his mouth, Ben plucked his own weapon from his belt, activated the blade, and went to help his master.

* * *

Viper's heart pounded loudly in his ears as lightning coursed through his fingers, arcing across to the center of the storeroom and slamming into Kane, invoking another terrible cry of pain from the young man as he tried once again to jerk free of his restraints, to no prevail. The bones of his skeleton flashed for a split-second beneath his skin, and Viper clenched his hand in, causing the bolts to dissipate.

He walked out from the shadows, coming into the view of the single light strapped on the ceiling above, throwing its harsh light straight down onto Kane. As he walked, the racks surrounding their sides shook under his weight, wobbling the loose mechanical repair parts on their shelves. He stopped in front of Kane as the tortured boy struggled for air.

"Do not fight it," Viper said, his deep voice echoing a little in the small room. "It is almost over. But before you pass through death's door, tell me, little one: Who are the Jedi you tried to hide so desperately?"

The boy struggled to keep his head up, his swollen eyes barely peaking open in the light. The small cuts across his face that had sealed over reopened as he did, causing small trickles of dark blood to run down his face as leaned back, hesitated a moment, and threw his head forward as spit left his split lip, splashing on the Sith Lord's bald forehead, just above his scar. Wiping it with the back of his gloved hand, Viper clenched his fist in and glared at the boy, who now had the best grin he could muster.

"So be it," Viper growled, the words oozing with disgust.

He reached out and grasped Kane's head in the palm of his hand, slamming it against the hard back of the bolted-down chair. He fought back, of course. But it did no good in the Sith Lord's grip. Worming his way into the boy's mind, Viper began the long, terrible process of ripping thoughts and memories and pushing them into his own head. Despite the hours of pained tortured, the young man still could unleash a horrific scream, and did. The cries continued until minutes later, Viper got what he needed. Grinning, he pulled himself back to the shadows, and watching for a moment as Kane tried to lift his head from its crooked position, raised his arm and the lightning resumed.

* * *

Gently placing his palm in the center of the steel door in front of him, Ben reached out with his senses, searching almost desperately for any trace of his brother on the other side. . .

Nothing.

Quietly sighing to himself, Ben pulled his hand away and went down the thin, dark hall, illuminated only by the small control panels next to each door on both sides of Ben's body, coming up behind his master after only a handful of steps. "Anything?" He whispered, trying not to jolt her out of her concentrated state.

Her muscles relaxed a little as her head raised up a little. Her arms, extended outward in opposite directions, almost touching the doors lowered to her sides. Gallai shook her head.

Ben's heart truly began feeling the grief of the situation. They'd been at it for while now, perhaps too long. Despite himself, he found himself thinking of the layout of the base, trying to determine the best way out without running into any of the guard stations. . .

"But," Gallai said, breaking off the thought. "I was unable to get a read beyond that point." She pointed at the door at the end of the hall. Ben's heart raced as he broke into a brisk walk toward it, forcing himself to slow down for his master. He reached the door first, and like before, placed his palm on the cold metal door that spanned from one side of the thin hallway to the other, and stretched out with his senses.

She was right. Within Ben's mind; it was like staring into absolute darkness, like it was on the edge of the wall. He pulled himself out of it, barely, feeling a cold shiver run through his body. As Ben backed up, Gallai stepped forward, unhooking her lightsabers from her belt and igniting the twin green blades with a _snap-hiss _that echoed through the hall. The Bothan stabbed them into parallel with the top of the door, pushing them off in separate directions and slowly carving an oval shape out of the door. Finishing it, she slammed a quick, but powerful kick into its center and Ben watched as the inner part blew inside the room, only to disappear into blackness and assume from the loud metallic crash that it hit the other side.

Lightsabers still active, Gallai ducked through the hole with Ben following, trying his best to avoid the still-glowing edges.

Ben's insides knotted after stepping into the pitch-darkness, keeping up with his master as he hastily plucked his own lightsaber from his belt and activated it. But the added light did little to help. He could still only see a few meters ahead of him, with the occasional glimmer off what he assumed were speeder bikes and work stations. After letting it process for a moment, he concluded it was a repair shop for vehicles, though judged from how his breaths echoed off further then they should have and the landing struts they passed in the center of the room that it was perhaps at one time been a hanger as well.

"Welcome to my den, Jedi," A deep, powerful voice called out seemingly from everywhere, causing Ben to whip around to nothing. "Though you are too late." Ben strained his eyes, trying to find the source in the faint golden glow of his blade. Again, he saw nothing but darkness. The Padawan found himself backing up as he searched, stopping when his and Gallai's back brushed. Ben glanced back and saw she had already dropped into a combative stance, one saber held high with the other low as her brown eyes looked into the darkness in a silent challenge.

"You seek the one called 'Kane'" The voice continued. "But he is gone, as you shall soon be." Ben waited, heart pounding loudly in his chest.

A moment later, a storm of lightning shot out behind them, slamming into Ben.

He was tossed before his master could react; bouncing off the hard floor and stopping against the wall and loosing grip of his saber. Gallai was moving a second later, only to have to halt as another storm emerged and catch it on her lightsabers.

Ben's body burned as he stared aimlessly up on his back. Kane was _dead_? He thought to himself, ignoring the booming thunder sounds close by and the familiar strain of a lightsaber. It couldn't be true. It _couldn't_ be. He stretched out, trying to find any trace of Kane's presence, past or present, but the creature attacking them was still blocking that power. There was another boom, followed closely by a bright flash of blue light that illuminated the room for a moment, and Ben's eye caught something odd. Another flash a second later confirmed it.

A network of pipes was imbedded in the ceiling instead of metallic panels, closely knit while connecting and intersecting one another. After lifting his head up to see Gallai fending for her life against the storms erupting from a different spot each time, Ben gathered himself and got to his feet, then, calling on the Force, leapt up and slid his hand through one of the holes and grasped the pipe.

It held his weight, barely. Peering down, Ben watched as Gallai caught another blast, and then to his surprise, actually redirected the bolts in a single swing, causing a loud metallic pang as the collected energy hit the wall. Then back-flipped to avoid two more blasts. He watched this dance of battle repeat itself for almost a minute, almost not taking notice of the fact that rarely did the lightning shoot from behind her or at her sides. . .

Calming his mind, Ben reached out and grasped his fallen lightsaber in his mind, sending it spinning around to the east side of the room and having it duck down to narrowly avoid the end of a lightning blast. With a quick nudge, the yellow blade sprang to life as he guided it in a sharp turn that sent it in a course along the wall, its tip almost grazing the plasteel. There was little chance this would work, Ben knew. But if whoever was doing this was where he estimated—

The thought was cut off as a burst of lightning was suddenly stopped mid-way, replaced with a blade of crimson igniting horizontally in time to stop Ben's blade. In the glow of the two sabers, Ben could see the man's hard face, the light reflecting slightly off his shaved scalp with two long scars running down it at different angles, one stopping at the bridge of his nose while the other went to his chin. He stared at the clashing blades.

"Impressive," the man said, his voice less dominating but still as menacing.

The sabers broke contact and Ben released his grip, calling on the Force to cushion his landing and summon the suspended weapon back to his waiting hand. The hilt clasped hard in his palm and Ben rushed to join Gallai in her dash toward the bald man as a second red blade ignited from the other end of his saber.

Gallai got there first, and Ben felt himself hesitating to watch as their blades whipped around in blurs, forming an almost cocoon-like shape with the crackling sound of clashing erupting behind it. But once a hole came, Ben took it. He leapt forward, clearing over his master and stabbing his lightsaber down with a quick jab, but the bald man threw one end of his weapon up and blocked it, leaving Ben to have to shift his weight to catch himself, landing behind the Sith.

Though what little it did for them. The bald man was moving before his feet touched the floor, knocking Gallai away with a single strike and whipping around to him with one hand outstretched. But Ben was ready this time. When the lightning came, he got his saber up, letting the yellow blade take the blunt of the blow and wincing only slightly from the few stray sparks.

The Padawan did not, however, anticipate the heavy boot slamming into his nose, stunning Ben just long enough to catch him unexpectedly in a suspended Force grip and toss him away. The stale, metallic taste of blood coming into his mouth as he flew back, Ben snapped his eyes shut and reached out. . .

* * *

Gallai's brow twisted in tense, sweated concentration as she charged toward the bald man, having been just revealed by Ben's lightsaber that not even she sensed coming. Behind her, Gallai could feel her apprentice rushing to her aid, but she knew she couldn't slow down, not while there was still was a chance to take this man by surprise. But that didn't make it any easier to leave him behind.

She reached the man in just a few long strides, and gripping her two weapons until the skin under her brown fur was white, Gallai unleashed hell. There was no finesse in her strikes, not true grace, only unbridled force. But everywhere she struck, one of the bald man's blades was there to block in an oddly calm way, only a hint of aggression in his blows. Her flurry was cut short when she spotted Ben jumping above her and stabbing his lightsaber down in an unsuccessful jab and land out of her line of sight behind the brooding Sith.

He took a quick glance down at her and began to swing around to her apprentice, hitting an emotional cord within. But her attempted dual strike to prevent the turning was rejected in a counter-move that almost ripped her arms out of their sockets as the Bothan stumbled back a few paces.

A bright blue flash appeared behind him after his turn, and Gallai hesitated while having to fight in impulse to call out to Ben. Clenching her teeth, she charged forward, sabers raised and watched the man throw his boot to where she could not see, soon followed by lifting an almost clenched in hand and Ben swinging around into her sight, eyes wide in terror with dark streams of blood trailing down his nose and off his chin, and abruptly tossed away.

She stopped her sprint when he passed over, feeling him reach out. Snapping her eyes shut, Gallai extended her senses toward Ben, trying to slow him down and soften the landing even she knew was imminent.

But her concentration was broken when something slammed hard into her side, sending Gallai across the hanger and slam into the wall next to the door from which they cam in, slumping to the floor and her weapons skidding away, watching faintly as their blades winked out of existence. Her head rang with an almost deafening whine with darkness creeping into the edges of her vision, but she would not allow it to claim her. Gallai forced her eyes open to find the bald man in a full run, but instead of her, he was heading across from her, toward a group of smashed in speeders.

Toward Ben.

There was no time to think, only act. Gathering every bit of energy left that she could muster, Gallai threw herself toward him with all her might.

* * *

Something was broken, Ben knew, he'd both heard and felt a sharp crack upon his landing against, well, whatever it was he landed on. He'd lost his lightsaber in the toss, so without its glow, Ben could only tell it was hard, metallic, and cold. Despite his plea's, his eyes would not open as he fought the freezing grip of unconsciousness gnawing at his mind. At the edge of perception, Ben could swear he felt something far away slam into something that sent odd, chilling echo's through his young body. Followed by a pang of emotion that Ben had been feeling uncontrollably for the past day now: Fear.

For a few heartbeats, nothing happened, so believing he was not in danger, at least for the moment, he began his process of sealing any wounds on his body, until a horrible cry of agony jolted through his mind and made his eyes snap open as wide as they could.

He saw his master looming over him, her arms stretched out in opposite directions and clutched in like she was bracing against an object that was not there as her grief-stricken face was harshly bathed in crimson from the blade sticking several meters out from her chest, pointed downwardly at him. She mouthed a single, soundless word; run.

Hot tears were streaking down his face and jaw shaking horribly for a moment when Ben realized he was crying. But before he could reach out to help her, the blade was pulled out and Gallai was hefted up from behind and tossed to his right, disappearing into the darkness.

Leaving Ben alone with the Sith. His double ended weapon was still in hand, and the Padawan stared up helplessly as the man stepped closer, a gleam catching off his combat suite and his face illuminated in red light as his master was seconds ago. And those eyes. . .

There was a quick snap, and lights came to life above them, causing Ben to wince from the new, harsh light. His eyes were just beginning to adjust when a boot came up under his chin, pinning him back against the cold metal behind. Ben clawed at it with all he had, but the large foot just would not budge. His double-ended weapon closed down.

"So it's true," The bald man breathed. "It was foolish to come here, Jedi," He glanced over at Gallai, crumpled in front of the entrance. "And she has paid for your arrogance with her life." He brought his attention back to Ben. "Her death was your fault."

A spark of hate flashed through him, letting Ben shove the boot away and throw himself at him, clenching his hand as he did. But his small rebellion was cut short when Ben found himself pushed back again, his head hitting the metal harder. "Anger," The man's lips twisted into a cruel half-smile. "Good, you will find it will drive you from now on."

He leaned in closer, and Ben tried to fight the intangible hold that held him, and failed miserably. "The Jedi are on a loosing side, child. Your numbers dwindle as ours grow. Your warships fall while ours rise. This pointless, eternal war between light and dark will end, and every being will know our power," He extended a hand toward Ben. "Join us, and it will end that much sooner."

Ben's response came in the form of saliva, spitting it down onto the man's boots and lightly armored legs. He stared down at it, his hard face unreadable to Ben. Then looked back up at the boy and without warning, reached out and grasped his throat with his free hand. Ben gasped as he attempted to struggled uselessly against it, being lifted off his feet and meeting the man's weary eye.

"Defiant until the end, young one? Very well. Your mind may be too twisted by lies to see the final truth," He glanced behind him, and Ben saw that there was a door on the other side of the hanger, pushed in between a couple of workbenches. "but your brothers isn't. And unlike you, he is not bared down by the trappings of the Jedi."

He looked back down and relaxed his grip. "If you will not serve, then _he_ will."

_Kane's alive? _Ben's question went unanswered as the man took the hand still gripping his lightsaber and drove it into the young Jedi's face. As he fell and slumped against the metal, darkness consumed his vision.

* * *

Minutes later, he grudgingly awoke, staring up at the blurry ceiling as his head rolled from side to side lazily. It felt as if someone had unplugged Ben's brain from the rest of his body; almost a gift of relief from the burdens of his life.

A sharp hiss of metal pushing against metal caught his attention, turning to face it and resting his head against something hard. At first, the blurred figures that walked across the hanger were hard to make out, but as his vision sharpened little by little, their details were revealed. The bald man was the first of the four he recognized, ahead of the others with a powerful stride that said everything about him. Ben knew a burning hate should have emerged from his gut, but nothing came. No matter how long he lingered on the Sith, his mind remained in a neutral calm. Giving up on it, he moved on and looked back at the two silver armored clad soldiers following, their suites almost reflecting perfectly the light above.

The fourth person was beyond Ben's view, being carried between the two troopers. The group stopped when they reached a door on the other end of the hanger, waiting as the bald man keyed in the small pad on the wall next to it. Suddenly, one of the troopers slipped slightly to his side, and Ben caught a small glimpse of the forth being.

Kane. His hair hung a mess on his face, his features calm and eyes softly closed. But as Ben tried to call out to him, darkness once again consumed him before he could resist.

When he came to moments later, he _forced_ his mind and body to connect. The Force flowed threw Ben's body like water, and with an agonizing groan, he was on his feet, mostly. His vision remained blurred as he swayed and staggered on, always keeping his goal directly in front of him. Halfway there, something bumped against his foot, and after a moment of watching three of the same thing encircle each other, recognized it was his lightsaber.

Risking it, he bent down and scooped up the hilt, grabbing it after only three attempts, but when he got back up, he decided to keep it in hand instead of try to clip it onto one of the five belts he saw swirling about. Ben almost sighed out loud when he reached the door. Thumbing the pad, the door wisped to the side—

And a hot blast of air slammed into Ben, almost knocking him off his feet there and then as the shuttle that took up most the apparent second hanger blazed through the large, opened doors and rose up toward the night sky.

His mind slowly went numb again as Ben slumped against the doorway, staring at the mountains beyond the doors. It was over; he was wounded, his master was dead, and now his brother was lost. He'd failed, in every way imaginable. . .

_No, _Ben thought as he set his teeth firmly. _I will not give up. I can't; for Master Gallai's memory, for my promise to Lexi, and for my brother's sake, I cannot quit. _

Newfound energy surged through him as Ben stood in the doorway, and with his vision clearing, jammed his lightsaber onto his belt and walked as far as he could go, his legs growing stronger with each stride. When he reached the edge of a pit that dipped down only a few meters taller then he was, Ben glanced down and saw an array of unorganized speeder bikes directly below, each pointing off in a different direction. Without hesitating, he leapt down to the farthest one of the bunch, booting up its systems the moment he landed and swinging around to the still-open hanger doors. Ben wrapped his hands around the twin throttles after the indicator light went green—

And stopped. He craned his neck back to see the edge of the entrance, his thoughts trailing on Gallai.

There was no telling what they would do with her remains, and he had to fight the urge to run back and take her body with him. It would take at least a few minutes, and every second he stalled was another second that shuttle and Kane could get a little further from his grasp. So Ben pushed the throttles forward and the speeder burst through the open doors, holding back tears as he went into the perils of the mountains.

One sharp hill turn lead to another a half-second later, followed usually by another that should have been impossible to maneuver through, but Ben made it each time with the deadly precision, focus and timing of a man pushed too far. After just over a minute of this, he came bursting out a small crack in the side of the mountain and was almost thrown off as the repulser's under the bike hit hard against the ground, but held strong as he continued toward Blood Bones Grove, pushing the speeder until bright red warning lights flashed all across the small display.

Ben spotted a ship outside its great walls next to the medical teams stationed outside, using large spotlights for a light source—and after recognizing it as the ship Kane had ambushed with— altered his course toward it.

He screeched past the dozens of people without a second glance, and Ben drove the straight up the extended exit ramp and flipped it onto its side, causing the repulser's to slam up against the wall and force it to an abrupt stop. Flipping the kill-switch, the speeder died there on the spot and hit the floor with a loud pang as Ben jumped off and sprinted down the thin hallway next to him and jumped into the chair in front of the console.

His hands danced across the board as the ship rumbled to life beneath him. Grabbing main control yoke, Ben eased it up, watching as little by little the night sky filled his viewport and heard the ramp retract. Within minutes, the life support systems were kicking on when the ship broke through the atmosphere. Ben flipped a few switches on the end of the console, and a small screen on his right turned on.

On the screen, was empty space with twin amber trails of amber smoke going off in the distance toward nothingness. "The trail's still warm," Ben whispered, flipping another pair of switches. The ship swung itself around in a slower-then-usual movement, aligning itself with the trails on the screen as the computer traced the origins and trajectory.

_I made a promise, _Ben thought as the light flashed green three times. _and I intend to keep it. So you just hold on a little longer, Kane. I'm coming to get you. _

Pushing up the lever in front of him, the stars pulled back, freezing for a single moment before the ship jumped into hyperspace.


	7. Discovery

Lexi stood in the center of the _Crimson Raider's _main hold, cradling her bandaged arm and trying to keep weight off her wounded right light as she stared at dead speeder tipped on its side against the wall on the other side of the large room, an eyebrow rising up from oddness of it. Feeling the rumbling under her feet, she assumed her ship was at least in the sky, and judging by the whine of the hyperdrive just audible through the floor, possibly in hyperspace too.

Was she _supposed_ to be here? Lexi softly let go of her bandaged arm and began rubbing her temple with her hand, her mind trying to break through the haze to find the answer. After almost a minute, she gave in to the nagging feeling of defeat and gave up with a heavy sigh. They told her the short-term memory loss should only last an hour. That was a while ago.

Tucking her arm under the bandaged one, Lexi limped herself toward the bike. But she wasn't half way before she recognized the Sith emblem painted on its side, peeling at its edges from age and use.

Falling into the focused and all too familiar mind set of battle, Lexi quietly stepped forward and to her right, stopping when her shoulder brushed the wall in front of both the speeder and hallway. Inhaling a quick breath, she turned her body and peered down the hall with half her head still behind the corner. Someone was there, all right. The top of a head was visible just above the main seat's headrest, but the mysterious person's face was beyond her.

She twisted her body back, doing an immediate double-check to insure she was out of sight. Whoever this person who was stealing her ship was, she promised to make sure they knew the error of their mistake.

Then she would end them.

Bending down, Lexi winced from the jolt of pain that ran through her body as she freed her backup blaster from its holster strapped to her ankle. After standing, she glanced down at the small weapon to make sure its setting were correct, then wrapped his finger around the trigger and began making her way down the hallway.

* * *

Hyperspace was truly a marvelous thing. Flying through the mesmerizing blue vortex that swirled into endlessness while dark rings, almost serpent-like in their movements, encircled the ship, guiding you on your journey. But Ben was unable to enjoy it. As minutes after entering hyperspace, he was lulled slowly into a deep sleep. . .

_His eyes opened to nothing, and as the gut-wrenching feeling of falling consumed Ben, he desperately fought the coming urge to vomit. His muscles ached beneath his skin, but still, he could not explain what was happening. _

_Until, with an abrupt flash, it was suddenly replaced. _

_He stood at the edge of west courtyard of the Enclave, next to the great structure he'd always called home, where on days it didn't rain; apprentices would come out for daily lightsaber drills and other instructions by the masters. And though there was not a cloud in the sky, Ben was alone, except for the two beings sitting on the short wall across the courtyard from him. _

_Both were dressed in traditional brown robes of the Jedi, with quite an age difference between them. The older of the two, an adult female Bothan that Ben noted was shorter then most was typing away at a datapad in one of her hands, her blue eyes darting across the screen and fur ruffling as the display changed over and over. The second was a human child, who couldn't have been more then of seven years standard age by Ben's estimate, sat next to the Bothan, staring up at the clear with the innocence only a child could display. Her loose, yet clean-cut raven hair was starting to grow out, having almost reached her eyes. She kicked her legs energetically away from the wall. _

_The large door close to him opened, breaking into three pieces and each going off in a different direction. Another Bothan, this one just taller then Ben, strode out, her walk as graceful as it was powerful. She stopped in front of the two, and Ben only then noticed the small thing cluttering around the other side of her. He decided he needed a better look at this. _

_As he walked closer to them, the little girl took notice of the being standing in front of them, her shadow almost dwarfing over them. Still staring up at the alien, she reached up and tugged the sleeve of the Bothan next to her until she dragged herself away from the datapad and looked, with a twinge of annoyance, Ben noted, to see what it was. The twinge disappeared the moment her eyes found the being. _

_Suddenly, she dropped the device and threw herself forward; wrapping her arms around the being in the tightest hug Ben had ever seen as he approached. But the other apparently didn't mind, returning the kind gesture, though with a bit more finesse. _

_Eventually the embrace ended and the shorter of the two jumped back down, landing just before the little girl leapt down from the wall. _

_The shorter Bothan's eyes lit up as a smile crept onto her mouth, looking down at the taller one's side. When Ben reached them, his heart panged with a strange combination of pain and regret. It was Gallai. The spitting image of her, in fact, minus a couple lines on her face and a few inches off the long braid that fell behind her head and down her back. And cowering behind the ends of her dress-like robes was. . ._

"_Me," Ben breathed, staring in amazement at the frightened child. His dark hair was cropped short with a small Padawan braid hanging next to his ear. Gallai's dress shook as he hid his face away from sight of the unfamiliar people. But once in a while, he would peak one eye out at them, only to return back to safety behind the dress. _

_Breathing suddenly became harder to accomplish. Ben's mind ran off in a thousand different places at once, and the calming methods he'd been taught failed to ease the feeling. Distantly, his eye caught the rustling of the leaves on small trees looming above them. Yet he felt no touch of the breeze on his face, nor did his ruffled hair budge. _

_The entire scene began to slowly pull away from him, falling into familiar blackness and leaving him in it. Ben tried to call out, but his voice was gone._

_And in the span of two heartbeats, his situation shifted from one kind of terrible confusion to another as he felt himself be pulled further into the darkness at jaw-dropping speed. It was like he was being launched into atmosphere without a suite or ship by way of cannon. Ben grinded his teeth and clenched his hand into useless fists, fighting the incredible force of it with no success. _

_Until, it came to an end._

_He blinked. Every trace of the rushing feeling had dissipated from his body. Though when the young man looked down, he found his hands still trembling from the memory. _

"_Ben," A calm, soothing voice called out. He jerked back in response of hearing Gallai. "Hear me,"_

_Ben's eyes were darting from one end of the darkness to the other, searching for any sign of her. "You're starting down the self-destructive path of darkness, Ben. You're angry, about Kane and my death," His lip twitched from the mention. "but if you let it consume you as it has, then all will be lost. For in you, lies everything."_

"_I'm sorry to lay another burden on your shoulders, Ben, but the choice was not mine to make."_

_He tried to speak, but still his voice had not returned. "You have a destiny, Ben, and like it or not, you are special. Unique. And when the time comes, when a choice must be made, I hope__--__ I pray__--__ that you remember who you are, and what you have been taught. . ." _

* * *

With a silent gasp, Ben was jolted out of the vision, his face covered with chilling beads of perspiration. What had just happened? He shut his eyes and reached out for any hint of Gallai's presence, combing through the intangible web that connected the galaxy that was the Force.

His search came to an abrupt end as a cold blaster pressed into the back of his head. "Don't move, scum," An eerily familiar voice warned.

Ben inhaled sharply, recognizing the voice. Slowly, he raised his hands, showing they were empty of weapons.

"Lexi," He said, finding the words weak as he began rising from the chair. "It's me," Ben started to turn around to her.

She was still worse for wear, but the small cuts across her face and body had at least healed, leaving behind only a faint hint of their existence. She was limping, he noticed, throwing a quick glance down, with her other arm wrapped up as tight as it could be and a large white bandage attached to her temple. Her eyes stared directly into his, the blaster still pointed forward, now at the center of his chest.

And judging by the violet under her eyes, she hadn't slept much while they broke into the Sith Base.

He caught the blaster shaking a little, causing him to hold his tongue and try to reason with her. Moments later, something clicked and her eyes went wide with realization. "Ben," She gasped, lowering the weapon. Then quickly collected herself. "What are you doing here? Why are we in hyperspace?"

Ben grimaced. How was he supposed to tell her . . .? "Let's sit down," Ben suggested, leaning back into his chair and watching as she took the other seat on his right. For a long moment, nobody spoke, Ben trying to find the right words and avoid her stare.

Eventually, he broke the silence. "After your crash, Master Gallai and I went to infiltrate the Sith's base and get Kane out before anything could happen," Ben began, feeling his stomach begin to knot up with each word that left his mouth. "We failed. The Sith took Kane in a shuttle and killed. . ." Ben found he couldn't finish the sentence, shaking the memory away. "So now we're in hyperspace, following the scum that took him."

Again, silence hung in the air as the two couldn't bring themselves to look at the other. Until, something hit the metal floor with an echoing _thunk_. Ben forced himself not to flinch, turning back and finding Lexi staring out the viewport, the soft glow of hyperspace reflected in her glassy eyes with her small blaster now at her feet. He watched with a feeling of guilt bubbling back to the surface as she fought back the tears. Eventually, she turned her attention back to him.

"What about your master?" She asked him, sounding as if the words were painful just to get out. His silence said it all, and for what seemed like eternity, they didn't speak, merely lost in their own worlds of grief.

Ben forced himself to look at her. She still gazed out the viewport, only now no longer forcing back tears. She looked so sad, yet beautiful while running a shaking hand through her hair. The braid holding it came undone, but she didn't seem to notice. Strands of raven hair fell across her eyes, and as they did. . .

It hit him. _The girl. _He thought as the image of the child flashed into his mind, staring up at the sky with a smile. . .

It couldn't be. It just couldn't . . . _could_ it?

He was talking before his mind could compute the question. "Have you ever been to Dantooine before?"

She reacted. It wasn't much, and despite her current situation, covered it up well. But he caught it.

"Dantooine?" Lexi asked, stiffening against the back of her seat and shaking her head slightly. "No, don't see why you would want to, honestly."

Ben stared at her, feeling the waves of emotion coming off her. "You're lying," He growled. Ben hastily got to his feet, yet she continued to ignore him.

The time for secrets ended when his master died. Reaching out, he dived into her mind, swimming his way through the currents and turmoil churning within her. Soon, he found the core of it all, the 'Eye of the Storm' where all secrets were kept. He began his way toward it—

And Lexi turned around to him, her expression not faltering. "Get out," She said grimly. And abruptly, he was, shut out of her mind by barriers he could not hope to break and thrown back into his seat, baffled and angry.

"What did you do?" Ben demanded. To his shock, she did not recoil, but instead hardened.

"Don't like it, do you? Can't do it the easy way and pry into my mind to get the answers you want? Maybe you should try using your own brain instead of mine."

Setting his teeth, Ben fought the urge to try and break those mental barriers just to prove her wrong. But the act itself would be, and _was,_ wrong. So as she suggested, he began scouring his memory, passing through the events of the past day; starting with ambush, both in space and on the ground, the revelation of his parents past and his own, the battle outside the great city after the call, afterward, when they were preparing to depart. . .

Ben stopped himself. There was something Gallai had said just before they left, a single word: Lyrisa.

"Lyrisa," He echoed, noticing the not-so-subtle change in Lexi's emotions, changing from grief and despair to unbridled anger, with a twinge of regret behind it.

As she turned away, the memories began flooding back. Lyrisa was another Bothan, a friend of his master. He'd heard that few Bothans' came into the Jedi way, and when they both came into the order at the same time, formed a bond, despite their differences. Where Gallai was the refined warrior, Lyrisa was the energetic wanderer, traveling across the Outer Rim and settling local disputes and troubles that would have fallen under the councils' notice. Ben would hear tales of her exploits, usually from his master, of how she, knowing or not, saved entire sectors from falling under prey of war and tyranny. And even with her many 'aggravated discussions' with the High Council, she continued to do it, even when threatened to be cut off from her ties to the order. But she always won the voting, saying: "Though your paths remain clear, mine is tangled. What you see as reckless, I see as simply making my way through the maze, one twist and turn at a time." But with their separate tasks often a great distance from each other, the two Bothan's rarely found time to see the other.

But Ben had been under the impression that she had never taken a Padawan. Perhaps he was wrong.

Apparently, his expression wasn't hiding the emotions he felt. "Figured it out?" Lexi asked, her words dripping with impatience.

Ben nodded slowly. This didn't make any sense; Lyrisa had went missing over a decade ago, with no hint or word of her popping up anywhere in the rim. Again, his face betrayed his thoughts.

"I suppose your going to pester me until I tell you anyway," She said, apparently remembering about the tears and wiping them away with her sleeve. She straightened herself in the chair. "Yes, I was accepted into the order when I was young, but it wasn't as simple as yours probably was," Ben doubted that. "I was what they called, "emotionally unstable for normal training". They told me it was brought on by something I had experienced or saw before coming to them, but I don't remember before that. So after going through three separate masters, they decided one wild card should be with another, and so they called Master Lyrisa back and I was given to her."

Ben felt the emotions swelling beneath stir. "At first, it was all fine. Roaming the galaxy with her, solving any kind of disruption that came our way; all from single-handedly stopping wars to just helping two boys get their toy down from where they'd thrown it. And during all this, instead of taking me out to a building in seclusion and just telling me how to move a rock without touching it, Lyrisa taught me fundamentals most Jedi would discourage. She told me what the council hid from others, and just how bad things were on the rim. And if I failed in any way, didn't keep something levitated long enough, fell down while trying to balance the weight of my body on one hand, anything, she would always be there to catch me."

"And the first thing we did when we got back home, even when the council was waiting for us, was visit Gallai. Sometimes for hours."

"So when did _we_ meet?"

Her expression softened. "That was the last time we were on Dantooine. Gallai had been telling her friend that she had a 'surprise' to show us." A light chuckle came from her. "You never came out from behind her dress for longer then a second."

Again, logic was missing from the puzzle. If he had been under Gallai's for his entire life, then why did she wait to show him to her friend? Unless. . . "Exactly how often did you get back? And how did they keep in contact?"

"Lyrisa and Gallai?" Lexi shrugged. "To the first, not very often. Actually, I only saw the place—and your master-- a handful of times. To the second, I believe it was by hologram."

The pieces fell into place. Gallai wouldn't want to introduce her friend to someone like him via a quarter-scale hologram, which meant she probably waited years for Lyrisa to return so she could finally have them meet. That left only one more piece to finish it.

"What happened after you left?"

There was another noticeable shift in her emotions. "We were inbound for Taren," She began, her voice growing darker. "There'd been rumors surfacing about the Guild using slave labor, a direct violation of their contract with the Republic at the time. So we went to investigate, but our ship wasn't using a registration code they could recognize, so we were shot down by the automated turrets before we could reach the city."

Ben saw her hesitation to continue. "When we hit, the fuel cells were the first things to go. Everything around us was on fire. Breathing was almost impossible for me. Lyrisa was out of her seat in the blink of an eye, but I was stuck in mine. The crash webbing wouldn't come undone. But instead of saving herself, she used her lightsaber to cut me free and toss me out through the destroyed viewport. The ship exploded a second later. I was ten."

"From there, I forced my way to the Grove, taking any small job an orphan child could get. At night, I would re-live the crash in my dreams. Even now, I can still see it. My plan was to get enough credits to go back home, but one day while I was helping a cleaning crew in the main house of the city; a little boy stumbled past us and saw me. He asked what I was doing with the adults, and after telling him, he wanted me to play with him. I tried not to, but I was ten, and after all I'd been through, I just wanted to play, not do grueling work with people who didn't care. Kane and I became friends that day, and after he and Gonab took me in, I never looked back. My Force-powers slowly deteriorated away as I tried to forget all of it. It was my escape from one life to another."

"Later on, I discovered that the rumors were wrong. They were created just to keep us away from a little moon we often dropped by so they could raze it. Nothing there remained."

She turned away from him, and he did the same. Ben wasn't sure what to think about this, his mind floating in empty numbness until Lexi jolted him out of it with a single question.

"How long did they search for us?"

Ben turned back to her, even while she stared out the viewport. "A few months," He told her. "But with the demands of the war, they couldn't keep it up."

This time, she _did _turn around. "When did Gallai stop?"

He hesitated, thinking back to all the times she had left him behind to take the slum-mission nobody wanted. "I don't think she ever did." Ben said softly, the revelation of the words sinking in.

For a long moment, they didn't speak, though still glanced at the other. It came to an abrupt end when Lexi's eyes started to roll back as she collapsed out of her seat. Ben threw himself out of his chair, reaching out and catching her as quickly as he could, only to see what condition she was in. Her skin was purged of color and air came in hallow breaths. Her limbs appeared to be all but useless, dangling aimlessly.

"Just need rest," He heard her mutter under her breath.

So wrapping her good arm around his shoulder, Ben proceeded to stand with her and turn toward the exit, trying his best to keep all the weight on him, but only now, after the past day of fighting, death and destruction, did he realize he himself needed rest. He took one step toward the doorway.

"Wait," Her weak voice brought him to a complete stop. What had he done? Did he brush against one of her wounded limbs? His answer came in the form of her good hand slowly open. Baffled, Ben followed where the palm of her hand was facing, finding himself looking at the blaster at their feet.

The small weapon shook against the metal floor for a moment, paused, and resumed its rattling. And after a couple dozen seconds with held breaths, the blaster shot up into her waiting hand and her fingers wrapped lazily around the grip.

Finally tearing his eyes away from it, Ben looked down to find the faint hint of a smile on her lips. "Like riding a bike," She murmured. Nodding slowly, Ben quickly re-gained his footing and proceeded out of the cockpit with Lexi, his mind asking a thousand different questions that he no answers for.


	8. Into the Den

For the first time in what seemed like a millennia, Ben's sleep was undisturbed by dark nightmares or visions, but the loud chirping emitting from the console jolted him out of his daze of nothingness. Rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes, he leaned forward and pushed the flashing green button and the chirping ended.

Turning his head toward a small microphone connected to the console, he flipped a switch. "Lexi, get up here," He said, increasing the volume of his voice so the device picked it up.

Minutes later, she was there, now rested and moving on her own. "What's wrong with _you_?"

Ben pointed at the former-flashing button. "That," He growled. "I'm not really familiar with this model of ship; what did the chirping mean?"

Stepping forward, Lexi peered over the shoulder of his chair and saw the said button. For a moment, a smile touched the corner of her lips. "It was telling you ours Sith friends left hyperspace. And pretty soon, we will too. Perhaps we can get a look at where we're going," She leaned forward, brushing the side of Ben's head and flipping a pair of switches. Then sat down in the seat next to him and turned her attention to a small screen imbedded into the console.

Forcing down the feeling of dread at the loss of precious sleep, Ben waited in his seat for any information.

It was a long while before he got it. "The Horuset system?" Lexi asked aloud. Ben saw her lean closer to the screen. "But there's nothing there," The fingers of her good hand began typing on a keyboard of sorts, each key bearing a different alien symbol. "A few mining colonies, perhaps. But other then that, only dead space and deader planets. Could that be why they're taking Kane out there?"

_Horuset system,_ Ben kept repeating the two words, wondering why it sounded familiar to him, like he was trying to identify it in a bank of fog. . .

And it hit him, and with his heart picking up pace and a cold sweat beginning to form on his forehead, Ben stood and swung around her seat. She wasn't lying. On the screen, Ben counted no more the a dozen planets, all spread out across a wide space. But he didn't bother to do a thorough search of it, as he pushed her hand away and pounded away at the keyboard and switched his gaze from the board to the screen. From board to screen, the process repeated as planets came across from one end of the thin sheet of glass, only to disappear to the other end and be replaced by another.

Until he reached the last one. "I'm not sure, but I think I know where we're going." He said as he turned to Lexi, knowing he was probably going to have to face a fear he had known for most his life.

* * *

Korriban was as horrible as the stories had told. Beneath the blazing sun were desert plains, jagged rock hills, and a single settlement named Dreshdae. But under the surface, Ben felt the enigma of Dark-Side energy, radiating from the very core of the floating heap of wasteland in space.

Even as they pulled out of hyperspace, Ben felt the sudden dip in his emotions, growing more intense with ever passing moment. It reached the boiling point, and Ben gave the controls over to Lexi and took over her station. The screen displayed a visible pair of amber trails in the sky and around the hills, heading toward the settlement. That is, until they reached the settlement and the trails continued a little further, dropping down in a swirling motion behind a rock wall, and disappeared. Only as they pulled away, did Ben see the man-made door a short distance from the settlement.

He watched her argue with port control for a few minutes, and almost smiled when she won them over and eased into one of the open-ceiling hanger bay. Almost.

After touching ground, and after waiting for Lexi to remove her bandages, despite Ben's attempts to stop her, they were in the halls of Dreshdae. The worn metal was bathed in an even coding of dull yellow light from the ceiling. Mulled around in small groups of the open area was a mixture of humans and aliens, conversing about their day in the mines and excavation sites with some still needing to brush dust and dirt off them. After two hallways and an open area, Ben concluded that if you weren't a merchant or a miner, you apparently had no business Korriban.

Or a Sith.

Ben counted three different dark-clad people just outside the open area, only one an alien, who bore a lightsaber on their belt. All were glaring as he walked by.

But it was that he couldn't feel their presence is what disturbed him more then their gaze. It was he was in the hanger again, surrounded by complete blackness, but his master was not here to help guide him through it. Soon, when it became too great to endure, Ben clung to Lexi's mild presence in the Force; perhaps the only bright spot on this planet.

The two stopped when they reached the end of the hall, looking at the large, closed door in front of them. Lexi reached to the side of it and keyed the small pad, and the thick-plated metal rose up into the ceiling.

The outside was far worse for Ben. He was completely exposed to everything of Korriban, every lingering feeling of the past and present, and he could not stop it or keep it out. After making his way down the long ramp in front of the exit and crossing a small bridge over a short, dried out ravine, Ben was ready to collapse.

But he wouldn't. Leaning himself against a sharply pointed rock, he felt more then heard Lexi whisper something in his ear, then left him there and headed toward a large stone door, protected by a single armored figure.

At first, it just appeared to be two individuals calmly speaking to one another, then she began throwing in hand gestures, glancing over at him a couple times, and actually throwing herself back and letting out a bellowing laugh, soon joined by the trooper. But to him, it was like he was watching the whole thing through a view-screen. His mind felt suffocated, like it was trying to breathe in a room filled with smoke.

Eventually, Lexi came back, leaving her smile and laughs with the guard. "He says that it's a Sith training facility, and that nobody gets in without a medallion,—which he told me nothing about—or the permission of a Twilek called Yuthura Ban. He thinks she might still be in the cantina."

He tried to answer, but it came out as only a back-of-the-throat gurgle. "Is something wrong?"

This time, he focused and waited until the words could come. "Just need to get inside," He said, the words sounding faint in his ear.

Lexi nodded, standing next to him and wrapping her good arm around his shoulder and helping him just as he had done for her only hours ago.

* * *

Inside, while surrounded by those ignorant to the Force, was bliss. Or at least as close as Ben would get. Reassuring Lexi with a simple hand gesture, she eased herself away from him, and insuring his legs would hold with a few weary steps forward, the two turned and stopped in the doorway of the cantina.

The single, long stretched room was dark as a cave. Chairs, normally seated evenly around the small tables with a bright strip of ambient blue light around their rims, were pushed away and toppled over. The strongest source of light was the bar itself, a single U shaped tabletop with bolted-down seats that started almost in the center of the room and ended at the very back. Nobody was behind it. And on top the glass that protected one from the heat of the same harsh blue light, was a sign written in Huttese that said "Come back when open"

And at the very back, sitting at a table and sipping from a mug in one hand while reviewing a datapad with the other, was their Twilek.

Slowly, they approached, Ben trying to stay ahead incase this ended badly. Though in his current condition, he doubted he could serve more a purpose in battle other then a meat shield.

Dressed in tight-knit uniform, she hadn't noticed them until they stopped at the table before hers. The grey skin of her face was obscured somewhat by a series of tribal marks/tattoo's spread across her forehead and down the sides of her head. One of the worm tails—Lekku, Ben remembered the name being—that all Twilek's had, was behind her back and the other resting on her shoulder.

Her cold, amethyst eyes looked up from her datapad and found Ben first, giving him a once-over, then returning to the device. "What do you want, Jedi?" She asked, surprising Ben. He'd inspected a raspy voice, maybe even screech-like by her appearance, not the sultry tone that came out.

"I—Uh—" And without looking down, he realized he'd forgotten to leave his lightsaber on the ship.

"Don't be so shocked," Yuthura said, putting down her glass and locking his gaze. "Every Sith on Korriban could sense _you_ coming in, Jedi."

Yuthura shut down her device and stood, exposing the metal cylinder on the side of her belt. "Which leaves my original question. I'm guessing you want to enter the academy, is that right? To learn the true nature of the Force? The power and strength it gives you that your order is too afraid of corruption to explore?"

He hesitated, taking a quick glance behind his shoulder at Lexi. If he devoted himself to this, if he went head-first into the darkness to find Kane, he wanted to be absolutely sure his brother would be there. Her small nod answered it, if not the answer he'd wanted.

Ben straightened. "Yes,"

Yuthura's eyebrow shot up. "Really?" Moving forward, she began to circle Ben, brushing against Lexi without noticing. "You are far from the strongest to try and join us. Also, you lack drive or true potential. So tell me," She stopped in front of him. "what _do _you have to offer?"

"I have anger." He responded, perhaps a little too quickly.

She leaned in closer, stopping only a few centimeters from the end of his nose. It was then, Ben saw she wasn't very tall, matching him almost eye-to-eye. "And yet you try to bury it, even now."

For a long time, they simply stared at the other, Ben trying his best not to crack or give off the wrong emotion. Eventually, she eased back.

"But I suppose a lifetime's teachings will not be undone so easily." She conceded. "Only time will show us if you're worth it." After swallowing, Ben nodded.

"We'll leave, and present you to master Uthar." Yuthura said, retrieving her datapad and slipping it into a pocket. "He is often better judging of potential then I am." She glanced behind Ben.

"But your little 'pet' will have to stay behind."

" 'little pet'?" Lexi barked, shoving Ben aside. "You prissy tentacle-face son of a _shutta_—" 

Ben reached out and squeezed her shoulder, ending the insult. With a final glare-to-glare between the two women, she stepped back behind Ben. "I have a ship in the port. She can stay there."

"Very well. Then only one thing remains." She glanced down at him.

Ben followed her eye to his belt. "But why?"

"Because from this point on, you're no longer a Jedi."

He suppressed the grimace. Hand shaking, he reached down and pulled his lightsaber free from its clip. It was the weapon he'd began constructing when he was nine years old, a decade ago. The one thing that had always been with him, been at his side and his defense against the evils of the galaxy.

But then, so was Gallai.

Setting his teeth, Ben turned and held the weapon out, unable to even look at it. But Lexi could. "No," She said, looking up at him. "I'm not going to—"

"Lexi," Ben swallowed. "Please."

After a handful of heartbeats, she released a held breath behind closed teeth. Then took the hilt from his hand.

Throwing her the best smile he could, Ben twisted around to Yuthura. "Are we ready?" He asked, throwing emphasis on the last word.

"By all means." Yuthura strode between them, with Ben following behind. But stopped after a few paces.

"Wait," Ben said, turning back to Lexi and stepping toward her until they were nose to nose. "I won't be able to get to you," He whispered. "so if Kane leaves the planet, you follow. Weather or not I'm on the ship."

Ben half-glanced over his shoulder at an impatient Yuthura. Then leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. "Stay low for a while," He murmured. And after holding his forehead against hers for a second, feeling her true emotions, her true _fears,_ beneath the mental barriers, stepped away and turned his back to her.

"Let's go," Together, they passed through the doorway and strode off into the hall, leaving Lexi standing alone in the darkness of the cantina.

* * *

Ben reserved all the strength he could when the door to the outside slid open. It didn't do him a bit of good. The trek across took less then a minute in reality, but to him, it was hours of grueling and agonizing torture. He watched Yuthura speak to the guard for a moment before the distinct sound of stone pushing against stone came from within and the large stone door split apart.

It felt old inside. Like they had just passed through the entrance of a tomb that was sealed for millennia. The putrid stench of death was strong in Ben's mouth. The bricks that made up the floor, walls and ceiling were worn and dusty, with no indication of that problem being fixed anytime soon. But at least he could stand and walk.

They reached the end of the hallway and stopped. Before them was what appeared to be the center of the academy, a wide open circular area with only a handful of beings milling around the edges of it, one dressed in a light grey uniform with a carbine blaster the size of his arm instead of a lightsaber. The hall continued on the other side and to his left and right. Stone statues were under the pockets between the doors, sculpted like humans holding up the ceiling with their hands alone. In the middle of the ceiling was a carved out square, with light as bright as it was harsh to pour through it, illuminating every grain of dust around and in it.

And in the center of the light, was a man. Ben couldn't tell weather he was human or not; most of his face and bald scalp covered in the same markings as Yuthura's forehead. He sat on his knee's, dawning the same clothes as the Twilek beside him, if only bigger. Though the uniform did not conceal shape of a well-tuned body. His eerily calm face was titled down, with his eyes closed. An elongated lightsaber hung from his belt.

And when those eyes opened and looked straight up at Ben, a cold shiver ran down his spine as he felt the color be purged from his face.

"Who do you bring before us, Yuthura?" The man asked, his horrible yellow eyes still on Ben.

"A newcomer," Yuthura replied. "One who has had previous training."

"Ah," The Man—Uthar—said, his rich, almost soothing voice causing Ben to freeze on the spot. "Another. This day _has_ been full of hidden surprises." He stood without having to use his hands or feet, until he was dropping a few centimeters to the floor.

Tearing himself away from the Sith, Ben turned to find the Twilek staring at Uthar, confusion in her eyes but a small grin on her lips.

"_Another_, master?"

"I suppose you left before he arrived." The rhythmic pattern of steps echoed lightly through the room, and Uthar craned his neck back to the source. "Ah, speak of the Dark Side."

He strode off in the direction of the sound, heading for the hall across from them. The Sith Master stopped just short of the doorway. And Ben could now see the shadowy figure stalking toward him.

"Let me represent our latest arrival," The figure arrived just as the words were said. Light seemed to have to catch up with the being, and as it reached his face, Ben's heart ached. "Zemrok." Uthar concluded, a hint of pride in the last word.

_Kane._ His brother had a long, dark cloak around him, obscuring most of the robes that looked like they were just slapped on. Beneath the heavy hood, his face was an assortment of old and fresh cuts and burns. And his eyes seemed so . . ._ empty._

Kane had been broken.

"Young, powerful, and open to darkness." Uthar had caught Ben's shock, and left Kane there and strode toward the Padawan. He stopped a few inches from him, staring down at the boy with the corner of his lip raised a little. "Let us hope you prove the same, young one."

"I hope too," Ben said, his eyes falling back to Kane before finishing. "master."


	9. A Lesson In Darkness

Ben was allowed one night of rest before his training started. He knew he should have savored it, but couldn't. The bliss of sleep rarely penetrated the dark fog surrounding his mind, and even when it did Kane's hollow expression haunted his empty sleep. Eventually, long after he lost track of time, an armed guard came and told him to get up and prepare for master Uthar's morning lesson.

Still groggy, Ben walked down the hall toward the practice room that he had been shown yesterday by Yuthura before his first attempt at sleep. The black robes he picked out instead of the uniform everyone else apparently decided to wear felt foreign to him; though it was made of the same material as the robes he wore on Dantooine. Perhaps it was the planet; perhaps it was that he was in the heart of the Sith academy, but it just felt _wrong_.

Minutes later, he arrived at the training room. Like the central area it was, in short, a wide and open space. But this one was square instead of circular, with a few sacks and lockers pushed against the walls. The students, varying from age and species, glared up at him in the doorway. Sheepishly, he looked away as he joined the edge of the group on the floor.

The glares dissipated, eventually. Taking a quick glance around, Ben scanned the faces of the crowd, never lingering on one for too long. Kane was not among them. Ben sighed silently.

It was then a sudden weight befell his mind as his body grew a little colder. Moments later, Uthar came striding through the archway.

"Hello, my students." Uthar greeted, not breaking stride. "Are you prepared to unlock more of your potential in the Force?"

Ben caught more then enough broad grins to confirm it. "Good," Uthar came to a stop in front of the closed stone door that led out to the valley. Then swung back around toward the hall on the heels of his boots. "Bring him in."

Metallic clattering echoed in the hall, reaching the ears of Ben and the students and lingering like the corrupted spirit of one who could not cross over. A man, dressed from head-to-toe in thrown together armor plating and wielding both a rusted sword and damaged shield, came bursting through the archway, stumbling forward and apparently trying to catch himself. But the armored weighed him down too much, and hit the stone floor with a crash that pang down the hall he just came from. Two guards followed, their weapons trained on the starved man.

"As you can see, my opponent is armed, and well-defended." Ben watched as the man struggled to stand, his oversized helmet twisting off and blinding him. He could almost hear his heart pounding from where sat. "Now you will see what to do when encountering men like this on the battlefield."

Uthar brought his full attention to the man. "Attack,"

To his credit, he didn't back down. Sweat trailing across his pale face, he hefted the sword and shield and charged with all his might, weapon raised while screaming in defiance. He made it almost three steps before coming to an abrupt halt.

The sword and shield slipped from his grip as he fell to his hands and knee's, letting out a cry that made Ben cringe and look away, until he forced himself to watch.

He couldn't figure out what was happening. Uthar still hadn't moved, not even raised a finger, but the man continued to scream. Until Ben noticed the armor. The worn-out plates were pushing against his skin, wrapping and gripping around his frail form. Between gaps in the suite, Ben could see dark drops of blood stain his skin and the metal.

And just when it seemed he—and Ben—couldn't take any more, Uthar moved. He became a blur, leaping forward and stabbing one of the twin blade of his weapon into the top of the man's exposed back, keeping the crimson energy blade plunged into his spine for a moment before throwing himself back and closing down his weapon. He didn't seem to be breathing harder.

The man, however, was different. He stayed upright, like a wire held him from the ceiling, gasping in shallow breaths that grew weaker each time until he collapsed. Ben stained his ear, but there were no more gasps to be heard.

"The Republic believes armor will protect its soldiers," Uthar said, moving toward the body. "As Sith, we must teach them that it dose not; it can only trap them."

The Sith Master turned to the group. "Today, each one of you shall complete this technique until it becomes second nature." More clattering echoed from the hall, and the waves of fear hit Ben with the keen sting of a lightsaber. Uthar eyed the boy.

"Let us begin." He said with a smile.

* * *

Many, _many_ hours later, the lesson was concluded. Or maybe they just ran out of slaves. Ben didn't know nor cared at this point. His nerves were screaming for relief, or just to sit down. Time was irrelevant at this point, he just wanted some sleep.

Swaying down the hall, Ben was about to turn, and stopped cold.

Other then him, only one other person was in the hall, stalking ahead with a cloak draped around him. "Kane," Ben breathed. Though his mind clouded, his brother's presence was a blade that could pierce through it. But where once he felt confidence and strength, he now felt nothing.

Ben broke into a dead run, his legs almost staggering with each step. He bit the end of his lip and fought past the burning pain. Kane turned out of his sight, and a second later, Ben followed him around the corner—

And came to a stop in front of a stone door as it finished closing. Ben grimaced. It was Master Uthar's room. Not even Yuthura was allowed permission in there unless invited. Suppressing the coming feeling of dread, Ben walked away from the door. _Tomorrow,_ He promised to himself.

Right now, he needed rest.

* * *

When Ben arrived at his sleeping quarters, a simple doorless room off the end of the hall with just a bed and small locker on the floor, Yuthura was there, waiting with two wooden weapons.

"Good afternoon, Master," Ben said with a slight bow, trying to figure why she was here. Might as well ask. "Can I ask what I have done to deserve an audience?" Hearing it through his own ears, he suppressed a cringe.

"It's the evening, Apprentice," Yuthura stood, taking the two weapons in her hand. "Master Uthar was unimpressed by your handling of a blade." She told him. "So he asked me to show you the finer displays of the weapon."

The Twilek tossed one of the weapons, the longer of the two; Ben noticed as he fumbled to grab it in mid-air and failed.

No, he would not be getting that rest any time soon.

* * *

For hours, the pang of wood smacking against wood echoed through the halls in rhythmic timing, one strike after the other, until once again it was broken off by a man's cry of pain.

Ben set his teeth as he rubbed the bright red spot on his right forearm, desperately trying to hold his anger down from the growing number of marks on his body.

"Do not suppress it," Yuthura chided him, spinning her shortened weapon in front of her with her eyes trained on Ben. "Embrace the anger, not hide from it."

She closed the gap between them in just a few short steps. Ben threw his weapon up at an angle, hoping to redirect her strike instead of taking the blunt of it and draining his already weary body. But she noticed this before they connected, and with a quick flick her wrist, turned his defense against him by almost wrenching his blade out of his hand. He hung on, but it costed him precious seconds that Yuthura used to drive the pommel of her wooden sword into Ben's nose.

Ben staggered back, his mind reeling from the pain. Her prowess with the short blade was beyond anything Ben had seen. He always believed it to be a burden then an advantage. For deflecting blaster bolts, he suspected he was right. But dueling was a much more personal form of combat, with only two people and their blades, fighting for dear life. She was deadly yet graceful all at once, getting under your defenses to where your normal length blade became all but useless. Ben had the scars and bruises all across his chest to prove it. Her style was as she was; cold, swift, and always controlled.

Wiping the blood from lip with his sleeve, Ben forced the pain down and gripped his wooded weapon with both hands and readied for the next assault.

But none came. Yuthura simply stood there, her sword hanging loosely in one hand and head tilted like she was waiting for something. "What's wrong?" Ben growled.

"You. You have made no attempt to attack, despite the pain. All you try to do is defend and wait out the battle." She gestured at his trembling form. "But even when you have nothing left to loose, you still don't raise your blade to me."

Abruptly, she lashed out, and Ben once again staggered under the force of the single attack.

"Do you want to be a Sith?"

Another strike. "Yes,"

"Then it's time you proved it." She lashed out—

And Ben caught the short blade mid-strike, shoved both weapons away and threw his elbow into the side of the Twilek's head. Now it was she who staggered, catching herself against the stone wall. Breathing stale air through his nostrils, he watched as she slowly collected herself and pushed away from the wall, though the Lekku on the side of her face he hit was twitching as her mouth twisted into a grim smile.

"Good," The smile faded. "Now unleash the anger."

Ben felt the tremors of her words. His anger was bubbling up to the surface, there was no doubt. And like a drowning man thrown a raft, he seized it.

The dark veil clouding his thoughts, his very being since arriving on Korriban, suddenly lifted. The cells in his body began accelerating through his blood once again, pumping his muscles with burning energy. And his mind became lost in all of it. Then, he remembered about Yuthura.

With the Force now truly flowing through him, his weary body now rejuvenated with newfound power, he launched himself toward her. She caught the first onslaught of attacks, if only. Ben and the wooden sword became a blur, but to him, her blocks seemed slowed. With one hand, he struck, and with one leg, he swept at her feet. He knew she wouldn't try to dodge both, so instead ducked the blade and took the boot on the side of the shoulder.

She toppled down, but Ben wouldn't give her a second. Throwing his weight forward, he slammed his blade down at her, forcing her to stay on the floor and block his assault as best she could. But the force of the strikes was too much for the blades to endure. With a final strike, both the blades broke off violently at the hilts, splitting off in different directions down the hall.

Using the momentary distraction, Ben reached out with his senses and tore the remaining bit of her weapon from her grasp, sending it into the farthest wall and causing it to shatter into a thousand small splinters.

Before she could react, he called on the Force to pin her arms and legs to the floor and threw himself atop her, placing the sharp points of his broken sword at her throat.

"Now do you see?" Yuthura breathed, her eyes locked with Ben's as she fought for breath. "Within you lies power enough to bring the Republic down to its knee's. And through those passions, I will teach you how to harness this power."

Slowly, he eased his hold on her, until her muscles finally relaxed and the veil returned, though thinner then last.

For what felt like eternity, they stayed where they were, staring into the other's eyes. Until Ben let his weapon fall from his hand and moved in closer, pressing his lips against hers. After a moment, he felt her do the same, wrapping her arms around his back and pulling him closer, pushing their warm bodies together.

* * *

It was a long while before they were finished. With the ruffled covers of his bed pulled up to his waist, Ben watched with a grin that would not leave his face as Yuthura loosely pulled her uniform back on and strode off, catching the small wink before she passed the corner.

Ben slid his arms back and laced his fingers together behind his head. He'd just defied all his mentor's teachings and the very essence of a Jedi in this new age. He'd given into his anger, his passions and burning lust. It filled him; consumed him.

And he liked it.


	10. Adventures In The Cave

The ticking in Lexi's ears drowned endlessly on until the feminine electronic voice in the clock announced it had been thirty minutes since she had last checked. Lying in the lower bed of the med room, she found herself lost in the thin strips of clean, white light shining through the glass above. She'd always had a certain affinity for this room and what it contains. At times like this, where patience was a virtue, it was always easier to pass the time her then anywhere else in the _Crimson Raider_. Unfortunately, it wasn't working as well then normal.

It had been weeks since Ben left with that head-tail lightsaber-wielding witch. And still she had no heard anything of him, despite her trips around Dreshdae.

When Port Authority came and demanded a rental fee, she had nothing to give, until she noticed the dead speeder in her ship's hull. Turns out, it was worth enough to get her by for months, though Lexi worried that she may need it for more then that.

Swinging her legs over the edge, she propped herself up. But kept her head ducked down to avoid the short roof.

Over the time of a few, long minutes, her bored gaze switched from machinery around, to the chairs, to the few cases of supplies, and finally Ben's lightsaber resting atop her pillow.

Ignoring the pops and creaks in her joints as she reached for it, Lexi brought the hilt closer to examine. Simplistic and straightforward, yet different from the others she had seen. It took no time to find the activator stud.

The brilliant yellow blade jumped out the emitter, but Lexi did not flinch. Staring at the weightless sword, memories from days gone past came pouring back in. She could almost feel a faint vibrating emanating from the center of the hilt. Even at a young age, she knew her lightsaber, had she ever gotten the chance to construct one, would have a yellow blade. Like Lyrisa's was.

And with the lightsaber hanging motionlessly, a smile crept onto her lips.

* * *

Ben's breathing seemed to slow as he followed the of students, led by Master Uthar, from the warm, humid outside into the cold, dank cavern just outside the Valley of the Dark Lords.

A series of thin, claustrophobic circular tunnels with a few open areas along the way, the group remained in mostly single-file, with Ben and Yuthura at the very end. He reached up and ran his fingers lightly across the right half of his face, cringing as he quickly pulled it away. Days ago, Yuthura insisted on giving him something to better improve his appearance with those in the academy; a marking of some kind. He let her apply it; a series of round dots under the eye like hers, but unlike her markings, a long diagonal strike that started at his temple, crossed over his eye, and stopped just before his nostrils. The skin around it was still sensitive, but he did get a few less glares from students and teachers alike.

An ancient creature supposedly dwelled in these caves, a beast Uthar had spent years hunting to no success. But each attempt he mapped out the twisting and turning of the caves onto a datapad, and he now believed he had found its resting area. Though why he brought every student in the academy was a mystery to Ben.

A few minutes of walking through the tunnels past and they reached their first open area. The group did not even slow, piling through the adjoined tunnel on the other side. But when Ben and Yuthura reached the path, Ben grabbed the Twilek's arm and swung both of them out of sight of the others against the wall next to them.

"What the—" Yuthura never got to finish as Ben planted his lips against hers, making the remainder of the question nothing soft, muffled gurgles. He finally broke off, staring into her hungry eyes with his own. Her lip raised a little.

"You're going to get us caught you fool." Yuthura whispered.

He inched closer. "But master, I thought through passion I gained strength?"

Yuthura looked as if she was going to continue the arguing, but to Ben's surprise, she relaxed, throwing her arms around his neck and running her hands through the scattered strands of his hair.

"Perhaps you _can_ learn." Now it was she who leaned forward and resumed the kissing.

His hands eventually found themselves resting on the side of her ribs, traveling down to the bottom of her waist and around. . .

Abruptly, she pulled away. "No," Yuthura breathed, wrenching free of Ben's grasp and charging down the tunnel. Wide-eyed with a raised eyebrow, Ben followed, wondering what was wrong.

It took a minute for him to hear the faint voice echoing from down the tunnel, and realized that they had fallen behind. Far behind. Sweat glistened from his forehead as Ben called on the Force to bolster his strides, barely keeping up with Yuthura up ahead. After three turns and two open areas, the voice grew stronger and stronger in their ears. He watched her turn another corner, and a handful of heartbeats later, he did the same.

And stopped cold along side her. They had reached the target zone, and _everyone_ was there, glaring at them in the entranceway. Uthar was in front of the group, eying the two suspiciously.

"Hello you two," Uthar greeted. He threw a glance over to Ben, and the Padawan forced down the cold shiver in his spine. His eyes then narrowed on Yuthura. "Why did you fall so far behind?"

Ben looked over at Yuthura. Her thoughts and feelings were unreadable under the cold, emotionless mask that was her face.

"While you were entering another tunnel, the apprentice and I sensed something inside, like a faint vibration in the air."

Uthar's brow rose a bit. "Strange that I did not."

"Strange indeed, Master Uthar." Yuthura agreed. "Our search led us to a mangled corpse holding a crystal in a hand with large teeth imprints." Ben noted that while she spoke, her arms folded behind her back were moving slightly.

Her hands and fingers working like an intergalactic puppeteer's, her lightsaber floated just behind the swell of her back, coming apart slowly piece by piece until the weapons heart was exposed. The almost glowing ruby gem fell from its place and into her palm as her hand wrapped into a tight fist. The weapon quickly reconstructed itself and landed in her other hand.

She stepped forward and dropped the crystal into Uthar's already waiting hand. He glanced down at it, and then let out a soft chuckle.

"Very good," Uthar said, turning his back and depositing the gem into one of the small pouches on his belt.

Stepping back, Yuthura threw Ben a quick glance and despite the barrier's she'd thrown up, he could feel the resentment bubbling under the surface. Quietly chiding himself, he moved with the rest of the group, staying in the back while Yuthura pushed her way through.

This was the largest room he'd seen of the cave. They stood on a rock walkway wide enough for eight or nine people at one time, the same sickly grey color as the rest of the cave and forcing the group to remain more or less in single file. An almost exact duplicate of the walkway rested on the other side a crevasse, with only a thin rock bridge Ben would rather not trust to get across. In and beyond the crevasse, it seemed to go on forever, the bottom shrouded in a strange combination of mist and darkness. A cold chill went through Ben's body, lingering in the soles of his feet long after it dissipated.

Uthar stopped at the foot of the bridge. "And there it is." He announced, looking straight across the bridge.

It took Ben's eyes a long pause to find the outline of the beast inside of a large pocket of space in the opposite wall, consumed in darkness. Glimmers of light caught against the creature's smooth claws and massive form. Small bright specks were all he could see of the eyes.

Uthar gestured and twin Twilek's came up to where he stood, each holding a large piece of metallic equipment. Their lime-colored skin stood out from the rest of the students and the cave itself. Bending down, the two began work assembling the portable launcher.

Uthar extended a hand toward the creature, palm open. "Now, my children reach out with the Dark Side and grasp the monster in your mind. Keep it restrained." Ben saw through the group Uthar's lips raised. "It will not escape this time."

Almost in simultaneous union, a dozen and a half robed and tight-knit uniformed arms rose, Ben's following in suite. The air churned and grew thick as the creature slowly realized what was happening, and in response tried to rank free of the intangible grip, only to end in frustrated fury.

Beside Uthar, the Twilek's finished the launcher with a clear click. And as they reached for the two pellet missiles, a voice called out to Ben through his mind mind: _Alone. . ._

"What?" Ben whispered.

_Alone. . ._ The Voice repeated. With a flash, Ben realized it was the creature. His stomach felt like it was wrenching off in all directions. The specks of light were centered squarely on Ben. A feeling of dread washed over him. _Please. . ._

"Ready," Uthar said, his voice with an edge of anticipation.

But Ben could not disrupt even one of the currents of energy around him, much less them all at once. But the missile itself was another story.

_Please!_

"Fire!"

The rocket blasted out of the launcher's firing nozzle in a flaming burst. Ben reacted, reaching out with the Force and knocking the projectile off its course and sending it almost directly up. It eventually came in contact with rock, the normally deafening explosion nothing more then a muffled echo in the distance. The ground shook for just a moment as large pebbles rained from above down into the crevasse.

Nobody spoke. Whispers started to arise only after a student pointed out the empty pocket of space across the bridge. And as the enormity of it all began to sink into Ben, Uthar turned to the boy, and for the first time in almost a month he saw the Sith Master without his overlaying mask of calm.

And it was like something out his nightmares.

Before Ben could apologize though, he was thrown into the air, stopping and staying suspended high over the crevasse, his body immobilized in place and feeling like his chest and organs were caving in on themselves. Pebbles bounced off his head, but he didn't notice. Eventually, he was released, bouncing once off the edge and forcing the group to dive out of the way as he landed in the center of the walkway. His eyes were half-open when Uthar was on him, igniting and stabbing the back end of his lightsaber at the young man's head, missing it by an eight of a centimeter.

His mind lost momentarily in the pain, Ben dug in and forced it down, only to realize Uthar had missed on purpose. Nothing would--or should--have caused the Sith to miscalculate. The sound of his hair sizzling was loud in his ears.

Uthar's breathing slowed through the twisted snarl that was his mouth. Ben could even see the red vanes in the edges of his wide eyes.

Then, the hot hate disappeared. The feeling of sorrow and dread seethed with the quiet breath he took in.

"No," Uthar breathed, extinguishing his lightsaber as he stood. He turned his head toward the scattered crowd. "Thalia"

The woman—Thalia May—emerged from the crowd. Like most of the apprentices, she took to wearing the uniform then the robe. _Unlike_ most of the apprentices though, she had actually shown Ben a sort of kindness. Her soft, dark skin was dirty and her hair a mess. Something born of the commotion, no doubt. The lightsaber hanging on her belt rattled as she approached.

When she stopped next to Uthar, he looked down at Ben, emotionless. "Kill him."

Ben reacted just as Thalia did. "Master," She gasped. "I—"

"Kill him." He said flatly.

Thalia glanced down at Ben, then with a quiet sigh, plucked her weapon off her belt and ignited the red blade. Ben struggled to move, but his arms and legs were bound to the floor. Air was sucked out of the cave as everyone held their breath, all eyes on the blade. Ben could see the turmoil in Thalia's eyes, a small war waged within her mind. Thalia's cheek twitched slightly.

And she struck.

Uthar caught the blade before it reached him, his lightsaber blades barely out when the energy swords clashed. At that moment, Ben's body was released and the young man did not waste the opportunity, propelling himself back and landing in an awkwardly angled crouch just behind the remnants of the crowd. There was just enough of a line of sight through the people to watch everything.

She should have dead by now, Ben knew. And would have been, had it not been for the intervention of her two Twilek step-brothers. Still kneeled next to the launcher, one of them launched the second and final capsule at the Sith Master. The man stepped back, though, deflecting the small explosive upward with his palm alone. But unlike Ben's, the rumbling of the ground stayed for a good long minute. Uthar didn't wait. He whirled around and sent his double-bladed weapon out wide, only to slice air.

"Jarsa! Ne'dolo!

Everybody turned to the source of the call, and found Thalia charging down one of the tunnels, lightsaber still active with her step-brothers scrambling to follow. One of them sent the launcher itself at Uthar, but it was too, deflected.

They were in the tunnel in just a few long strides. And like a mirrored image of the same man, they both turned while running and extended their hands toward the tunnel's mouth. Ben felt the tremor rumble beneath his hands while the entrance collapsed in on itself. A cloud of thin dust rose up from under the jagged rocks. Ben glanced over at Uthar, after he had taken an involuntary step toward the pile. But it was too late. They'd escaped.

And in their wake, had awakened a nest of Shyrak's.

The bat-like creatures emerged from the holes where the rocks broke off, their almost flesh like wings flapping and terrible high-pitched, grainy squeals completely overbearing the sound of a dozen lightsabers flaring to life. Around Ben, apprentices slashed and hacked, yet more just kept coming. Even Uthar was having trouble.

But Ben had yet to receive a lightsaber. So instead created a swirling barrier of Force-Energy around him, wincing slightly as each Shyrak bounced off with the symphony of _thud-thud-thud_; the only sound in the bubble other then his ragged breathing. Wings flapped everywhere.

It was seconds later when he realized he was not the only one without a lightsaber. Seeing past the creatures bearing their rows of sharp little teeth and apprentices trying to exterminate them, Ben found Yuthura. She was at the edge of the crevasse, fighting for her life. Without her weapon, she'd taken to her talent with the dreaded Sith Lightning. The tips of her gloves were burned off down to just below her fingernails. A collection of still-smoking Shyrak bodies was around her feet. With her focus entirely on the Shyrak in front of her, she hadn't even noticed the group swarming from above.

"No!" Discarding his barrier, Ben threw his arm toward the Shyrak. The hold-out blaster Kane had given him slid from the confines of his sleeve and landed firmly in his palm. Calling on the Force to bolster his speed, Ben aimed and pulled the trigger, aimed and fired, and aimed and fired until the small battery pack clicked empty. For the most part, the bodies fell into the crevasse. He'd gotten them all, save for one.

It swooped down before either he or Yuthura could stop it, slamming foremost into her chest and knocking the Twilek back toward the crevasse. Ben was moving before his mind could think it, diving and gasping her hand in his just before it could disappear from view.

The pop in his shoulder almost caused him to let go there and then. But, his teeth grinding against each other, he forced the maddening pain down and out of his mind and began pulling. He didn't notice his blaster had slipped over, falling into the shrouded mist without a whisper. Behind him, there was a savage roar followed by something that sounded like geyser's of rushing water and suddenly the flapping ended, and the hair on the back of Ben's neck was standing tall.

With a final agonizing grunt, Ben brought Yuthura over the edge. His good hand was already cradling the dislocated shoulder. Around them, the Shyrak's lied dead on their backs, wings nothing more then dried flesh or dust with a wide whole in the center of each, almost as if the life had been sucked out of them. And looming over the two was Uthar, lightsaber in hand but not active.

"Your action are odd for a Sith," He said at last.

Ben managed a swallow. "Some would say the same about you," He paused. "Master."

Uthar said nothing. His face did not betray his emotions as Ben's had. After a moment of gazing down at the boy, Uthar turned back to the cave they had come in from, clipping his weapon back to his belt as he strode off. Everyone else followed his example at the same instant, re-forming the almost single-file line and stepping over the Shyrak corpses. It was over an hour before Ben and Yuthura got up and left the caves, heading back to the academy.

* * *

In Uthar's report, he stated they never saw the beast. A group of alien-loving miners had gotten wind of their mission and arrived at the creature's lair moments before the group, scaring it to run with powerful, non-lethal flash mines. He ordered Thalia and her brothers to execute the traitorous civilians on the spot, but the woman had refused, bending the wills of a group of Shyrak and forced them to attack. She and her brothers used the distraction to flee into the labyrinth of tunnels. And rather then submit to the Sith Master, the group of activists jumped into the crevasse, chanting while holding hands as they fell to their inevitable deaths.

The false ordeal allowed Uthar to restrict the off-world miner's to just the Valley of the Dark Lords alone without dispute, with armed guards around each of the perimeters and around the workers themselves.

Ben's arm recovered quickly, but the fractured ribs did not. With much helping on Yuthura's part, he barely made it through his daily training sessions after returning, only to fall into a dreamless, pain ridden sleep at the end of it all, waking in a half-scream as he rolled on his side wrong. The best part was yet to come; he thought to himself as he listened to the leather footsteps echoing in the halls, in which he got to start it all over in the morning. He knew he wouldn't have to wait long.

In the end, it was just another day.


	11. Past Pain

When Ben's wounds healed over, he went out early to catch the sunset. But standing on the roof of the academy, a brisk, crisp air shivering up his neck, and a final push of wind from the remnants of night, his hopes quickly faded.

Just over the tops of the stone walls that trapped the academy, the crimson sky slowly gave way to the clear blue. The sun itself began inching its up, poking out over the mausoleums in the Valley. Glimmers of harsh light poked through the cracks of rock. Waves of heat came moments later, and Ben's body shuddered while he tried to adapt to the change. He didn't. Closing his eyes, he sighed aloud.

"Another day in hell," Ben murmured, making his way down the steps and hoping to get a few more hours sleep.

* * *

As weeks slowly churned into months, Lexi's odd fascination with Ben's weapon grew. She found herself staring into the brilliant yellow blade more and more. And the more she did it, the more memories came flooding back. And eventually, she couldn't take it any more. Every day, in the hull of her ship, closed off from everything, life, people, agitated port mechanics, she began practicing basic jabs and blocks with the lightsaber. The flourishes soon gave way to the combos, even leaps and flips. And with each day, her hold on the blade became focused. Her concentration tightened. Now, it was time to test it.

Sticking out among the hold were metal poles, spread out and just under her height. Lexi stood at the edge of it all, one foot in the med room's doorway, lightsaber gripped in one hand.

She took in a breath and released the hot air through her nostrils. Then thumbed the blade to life with its distinctive _snap-hiss, _and went in.

Her mind slipped into the trance-like state almost instantly, sending the yellow blade out wide and decapitating the first row of poles. Then leapt over them. Her blood rushed with the adrenaline, but remained in check. Her strikes sometimes went out a little too far, but she always brought it back with the next. A strange quiet loomed in her ears as she hung upside-down over the poles, slashing the tip of the blade neatly into the top. Sound returned to her as she landed. Turning, Lexi lashed out before seeing her target and chopped through the largest cluster in a single arc. Their ends burned a bright orange after sparks erupted from the cut-off point for just a second.

She took a quick glance. All the pipes had a cut or burn of some kind; all except for one, stuck alone in the corner. But Lexi knew that to get over to it, she would have to break her momentum, and that she would not do.

So snapping her eyes shut, she whipped around and reached out with her limited senses. The woman caught a hint of the tool she had placed on a large shelf, an inanimate object that felt nothing, just as she did from its presence.

But she fought against it, like the running water pushing against the grounded rock in the middle of the river. The object budged once, then careened off the shelf and down the thin hallway with a sharp hiss as it cut through air, its shadow expanding on the wall until it was out of sight. A second later, it hit metal.

Lexi grinned. Under her feet, a low rumble began, followed by a high-pitched whine, muffled behind layers of metal. Her eyes shot open and Lexi broke into a dead run to the cockpit, closing down the lightsaber as she did. She threw herself into the chair, ignoring the tool pressed crookedly against the swell of her back.

The console was an array of flashing buttons and screens grudgingly coming to life. A deep dent was in the center of it. The rumbling grew stronger.

She inhaled the cool air. Moments later, when the lights and screens faded back into the darkness of offline, Lexi released that breath. Beside her, the console bleeped, with the face of the young, irritated human appearing on the screen for the third time in a week's time.

A lump formed in the back of her throat as Lexi began to make up her story. ************************************************************************

The pathetic workers complained about the heat. The thin air. The long hours. Viper baulked at them. He drew every breath with sweet satisfaction, fanning the swelling inferno in his gut. Drawing strength from the core of the Dark Side itself was an experience he relished in every trip to Korriban.

It should be _his_.

But that was denied to him long ago, at a time where he was weak, defeated, and undeserving of such a prize. The memory continued to linger in his mind since he landed.

Viper made his way from the landing sight to the meeting area, surrounded by the same colored rock as his landing pad was made of. The man was already there, of course. His arms were crossed, and he himself was standing in the middle of the path, his expression unreadable to Viper. It always was. A glimmer of bright light from above caught the lightsaber hanging from his belt.

"You're late," Uthar said as he approached.

"You're early." Viper shot back, not breaking his stride. Uthar turned almost casually, lengthening his steps to catch up to his companion.

"The bitterness is getting tiresome, Viperas,"

Viper's neck twitched. "It's _Viper_."

"You're still clinging to that name." Yes, in a way, he was clinging to that name. His old one—his true name—held nothing he wished to keep. Only bad memories. Only past pains.

They were on the final stretch of path. The side of the Sith Academy was in their view, if only a speck in the distance that almost blended in with the surrounding rock. The sun was bearing fully down on them now. Viper felt the drops of sweat splash against the material of his suite. The incomplete X on his face seared horribly as they approached, just as it had when he received it. This had not happened to him for a long time now. Was something unseen causing this? Aimlessly he stared at the building ahead, his eyes not blinking as it all came flooding back. . .

_There was a scream. In the empty space of the academy were three men, lightsabers active in the hands of two, one on the belt of the third. All were elongated. All were bald or balding. One was on the ground, defeated on his back. It was two decades ago. _

_It hurt with each stale breath Viperas took. He could feel the two broken ribs in his chest and wished the lingering pain in his left thigh would just disappear. The lightsaber in his hand was going to fall out of his grasp. He knew it would. Then, he would truly be finished. Craning his neck up and ignoring the sharp pop, Viperas saw Uthar standing strong, how own double-bladed weapon in hand and ready to spring to action. A single group of markings was imprinted on his forehead, just above his nose. Their master, Jorak Uln, who observed the battle from the corner, told Viperas he would get the same kind of mark when he proved himself worthy. He knew he would never get any. Uthar's blue, calculated eyes studied him carefully. _

_Viperas shoved the pain down, focusing the hot anger into the palm of his free hand. The Sith apprentice would not go down like this without as much as a scratch on his opponent. He unleashed the power in a single burst from his hand._

_But Uthar saw it and reacted appropriately, as he always did. He stepped back and threw his arm up, burying his face behind it and in Viperas's minds eye, he watched the burst bounce up to the stone ceiling, hitting with a soft thud and causing some of the dirt to fall from the cracks. _

"_No, no, no!" Jorak barked, coming toward the two. His tone was like that of a cackle of a mad man, something he had been called more then once in his life. The grey uniform he wore was not extravagant. It looked like all the others, with a black leather strap starting from under one of the shoulder pads and resting on the side of his belt parallel with where his lightsaber hung. His skin was a ghostly white. The once black hair atop his head gave way to grey long ago, reseeding to the sides and back and leaving the top of his scalp shiny. The pupils of his eyes was almost as white as his skin; only a rim of violet around the pupil itself remaining. He looked like a man who never slept. "You cannot grasp the lesson!" _

"_You're weak. Afraid. I have no use for such things!" _

_Viperas tried to speak, but his lungs could not gather the oxygen needed. Suddenly, the little air he had was ripped away as below him—_inside_ of him—he felt something crack. His spine._

_The soft tissue of muscle screamed while the bone twisted, wrenched and jerked, and Viperas helpless to stop it. He lied still in cold, quiet agony. _

"_With or without your consent the lesson will be taught." Jorak was on top of him in a heartbeat, knee's pressed against Viperas's useless arms, the handle of his saber pointed down at him, a twisted grin on his lips. His eyes grew wide when he spoke. "And that lesson begins," The twin blades of his lightsaber appeared before he finished: "with pain." _

_The blade was stabbing down before he could protest. The high-energy tip burned into his flesh, above the right temple. For a moment, his mind went dead. He thought of nothing as the half-insane man dragged the tip down at an angle, blind with red as it passed over his eye and singed the lashes. A cold sweat began to form. His nerves crawled under his skin as his stomach knotted. The odor of spoiled meat was strong. _

_And with final flick, the Sith Master finished the mark. Then swung the other blade around and began all over again, this time starting at the left temple. And again, he could do nothing. Lazily his eyes drifted, finding Uthar, his fellow apprentice, the closest thing he had to a friend, just standing off to the side, watching. _

_No more. _

_Jorak was at the bridge of the nose when it happened. Viperas surrendered himself to the pain, digging deep and pulling power from anything and everything he could. A gestureless blast erupted from him, and Jorak hit the ceiling with a sickening crack, slumping to the floor, still as the stone he lied on. _

_Viperas breathed slowly. The Master's hold on his spine had disappeared. He was free to both feel the terrible sting and see the trails of thick smoke rising from his face. _

_Next to him, Jorak stirred. Viperas watched in horror as the Sith Master stood, hearing ever krick and pop from his body echo down the halls. When he reached his feet, he looked down at the young man, half his face twisted in a scowl while the other a grin that looked like a blood-relative. _

"_Good." He said. Jorak turned on his heels and strode off down the closest hall. _

_Viperas could only watched him go, Uthar running to join their demented master. When they passed out of sight, his eyes rolled back, and blackness consumed him. _

They were the only Sith, or so Jorak had thought. Years later when Darth Revan and Darth Malak came back from the unknown regions, an armada of warships and star fighters behind them, more and more groups of Sith came out of the woodwork, but by then Viper and Uthar were no longer apprentices. Despite this, they were drafted in, Uthar taking the academy from Jorak and Viper being shipped out from one station to another, every one not even close to the fighting. Even after Malak betrayed his master, nothing different happened to Viper. Eventually, he ended up on Taren with the Bounty Hunters.

But of course, that was about to change.

Word of his battle with a Jedi Master and her resulting death had reached the ears, or the mechanical jaw around them, of Malak himself, and Viper was taken off the dirt-pile that was Taren and assigned to another project. Though detail were few.

Viper only now blinked and saw they'd reached the academy. In front of them the large, ancient door swung open with a worn rumble and the two strode in, leaving both the blazing sun and hated memories in their wake.


End file.
